Education system resilience in Latin America and the Caribbean

• In Event: Regional perspectives on education system resilience: Insights from the Pacific, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean

Proposal

The topic of educational resilience at the system level has been gaining increasing attention, as the interruption of the most basic service, the provision of classes, occurs frequently due to a variety of shocks. This presentation will include research on how education resilience is conceived and implemented in eleven countries (Belize, Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), which are the focus of the Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) Observatory on Education Resilience, called AdaptEd. Based on a review of the literature and interviews with key stakeholders, we have identified five resilience topics that are most relevant to the region: disasters, health crisis, migration, violence, and political and economic crisis. Of these, the first one has gained more attention from the press, but the others also generate significant disruptions to education systems. The LAC perspective is also marked by high levels of inequality, particularly related to the poor, rural, indigenous students, girls, and students with disabilities. Our analyses will include a discussion on how shocks differentially affect these groups. We will suggest how the conceptualization of resilience could include issues of inequality to better reflect realities on the ground.

Following the above introduction, the presentation will include three sections. First, we will present a content analysis on how resilience appears in three national documents: education laws, curricula, and national education plans. Our results show that the term is more likely to appear in the latter, with little presence in the first two, with wide variations across countries. When it appears however, it is mostly associated with strengthening local capabilities to prevent and respond to shocks.

Second, we will present results of the literature review on how countries work to prevent, respond and recover from shocks, and what seem to be best practices in this area. Initial results show that the five identified resilience topics should not be conceived in isolation of one another, as one often has implications on another. Also, best practices involve coordination of different government agencies, international links with organizations and networks, working at a decentralized level, and collaboration between governments, civil society institutions and the private sector. However, there is very little research on the efficacy or effectiveness of these programs. Most of the best practice recommendations come from international agencies. Among the paths for prevention and recovery, a few options seem promising based on our research. First, most countries need to strengthen their distance education systems, so that classes continue even when face to face interactions are not possible. Second, teachers need to develop professional capabilities to deal with the multiple areas of resilience.

The presentation will conclude with a discussion of the conceptualization and practice of education system resilience from a LAC perspective and an identification of areas where research is needed, particularly related to inequality (i.e. research on vulnerable populations).

Author

• Santiago Cueto