What is this?
Overview
“What is the most challenging aspect of the PD approach?
The paradigm shift or different mindset from the part of donors, organizations and governments: which is for experts to become learners, for teachers to become students and for leaders to remove barriers for bottom up change.”
Positive deviance (PD) is a practice based on the belief that there is a bright spot within your community that has already found a solution for a sticky, intractable problem you are facing. Over the past two years, the K12 Lab has been exploring the potential for positive deviance in K-12 education. We have engaged over 100 educators from around the globe, working with schools that each represent the complexity, diversity, and opportunity we see across the education sector.
The K12 Lab’s Positive Deviance Toolkit for Educators brings together a suite of tools designed to help school teams identify and solve intractable problems by discovering and scaling their own existing local solutions.
This work is informed by what we learned through working with educators in applying positive deviance tools in their classes. These educators provided insight and feedback on the tools, process, and relevance in their community. We are so grateful for the support they provided, and are excited to share this toolkit as a reflection of their thoughtful work integrating positive deviance in their communities.
Credits
Devon Young
Jess Brown
Peter Worth
Marc Chun