New research programme reveals how positive deviance in schools can improve education for all

The Jacobs Foundation is excited to announce a new partnership with UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti and UNICEF Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Together we will expand Data Must Speak (DMS) Positive Deviance research into an additional three countries across Africa and Latin America: Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ghana.

Data Must Speak research sheds light on untapped existing practices and behaviors of grassroots-level stakeholders – for example, teachers, head-teachers, and communities – who are important change agents in education.

“Empowering our partners in-country to identify local positive deviance schools in an evidence-based manner, replicate and share them with peers is a truly new way of addressing the learning crisis through global education initiatives,” said Nora Marketos, Jacobs Foundation Learning Schools Co-Lead.

The research further leverages the positive deviance framework in conjunction with innovative research methodologies such as behavioral insights, implementation research, and scaling science to provide evidence-based answers for every child.

First reports with relevant findings will be published mid-year 2022. Find out more about Data Must Speak here.