Pierre Gouëdard
Bio:
A trained economist, I am an education researcher at the UNICEF Global Office of Research and Foresight – Innocenti. I lead the Teachers for All (T4A) project in several French-speaking African countries, and contribute to the Women in Learning Leadership (WiLL) initiative in partnership with IIEP Dakar.
T4A analyses how the deployment of qualified teachers can be optimised to improve equity in learning outcomes, and is currently implemented in 12 African countries. On the other hand, WiLL focuses on women representation as school leaders, how this influences management practices, and in the end, school performance. Both programmes follow a mixed-method approach, with a core co-cocreation process to ensure the relevance of the developed solutions.
Prior to joining Innocenti, I worked 6 years at the OECD as a policy analyst for the Directorate for Education and Skills. During that period, I split my time between the Policy Advice and Implementation division (PAI), and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA ).
Within PAI, I worked closely with countries on various topics, such as curriculum reform, indicator development, or teacher professional development, to address what has been coined in the literature the "implementation gap". This support to countries involved a three-pronged approach, where initial policy analysis informed implementation seminars, before providing strategic advice. At PISA, I conducted statistical analysis on learning assessment databases, thus contributing to the growth mindset study, the thematic report on reading, and the global competence framework.
I hold a PhD in Economic Sciences from Sciences Po, and two Masters from the Paris School of Economics and the Université de Montréal.
Country partners at UNICEF Innocenti
Country partners at the OECD
Research interests:
Implementation of education policies, school as learning organisations, shaping of students' aspirations, microeconomics, evaluation of public policies, econometrics.
Latest publications:
Academic paper: "The impact of schools as learning organisations on teachers’ self-efficacy and job satisfaction: a cross-country analysis"
For 3 decades, policymakers, educators, and scholars have been appealed to the promises of the learning organisation concept. Drawing from the last Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS 2018), this paper is the first to use a large-scale cross-country survey to assess the robustness of the relationship between schools operating as learning organisations and teachers’ outcomes, a pivotal question for school improvement and effectiveness. Multiple regression analysis highlights that the factors underpinning a school as a learning organisation (namely, culture of inquiry, shared vision, growing leadership, lower professional learning barriers, and teamwork) have a positive impact on teachers’ job satisfaction and self-efficacy. Policymakers, school staff, and other education stakeholders can use these findings as supporting evidence to engage with the learning organisation concept. Indeed, in times of increased strain on teachers across the globe, becoming a learning organisation can prove a vital shield against deteriorating teachers’ wellbeing.
Country-related work:
Research report: "Women in Learning Leadership (WiLL): What does women's school leadership look like in Chad? "
Effective school leaders are indispensable for driving school and student learning improvements. Inspired by emerging literature highlighting a positive correlation between female school leaders and learning outcomes and the underrepresentation of women in school leadership, the Women in Learning Leadership project in Chad adopts a gender lens to examine school leadership in the country. This research highlights the significant underrepresentation of women in the education sector in Chad. Only one out of five teachers (20 per cent) and 1 out of 20 school leaders – a mere 5 per cent – are women. The report (in French, with an English Executive Summary) presents the granular and sub-national distribution of women leaders and the multifaceted reasons for their underrepresentation in the Chadian education ecosystem. It also explores the differential education outcomes in schools led by female and male school leaders. The findings demonstrate that Chad remains a profoundly unequal society, and several barriers at different levels of the education system prevent women from rising into leadership positions. Recommendations targeting the identified barriers are highlighted to enhance female representation at the leadership levels.Research report: "Teachers for All: Improving equity of teacher allocation in Ivory Coast"
Equitable distribution of teachers is key for ensuring that every child can develop his or her learning potential to the fullest, regardless of the school or place of residence. In Ivory Coast, significant progress has been made in terms of teacher recruitment to maintain manageable class sizes. However, teacher repartition has to be improved, as pupils-teacher ratios vary widely between and within schools. For this reason, the Ministry of National Education and Literacy (MENA) recently initiated a reform package to improve the transparency and responsiveness of the teacher allocation process. This report describes the teaching landscape in Ivory Coast, as well as the reforms undertaken by the MENA, and suggests ways to improve the mapping of teachers according to school needs in order to promote access to quality education for all children.Research report: "Teachers for All: Improving equity of teacher allocation in Madagascar"
Equitable distribution of teachers is key for ensuring that every child can develop his or her learning potential to the fullest, regardless of the school or place of residence. Today, Madagascar's education system faces a double challenge: there are not enough qualified teachers, and learning conditions vary greatly not only across geographic areas, but also within schools. This report describes the teaching landscape in Madagascar, and proposes ways to improve teacher allocation towards universal access to quality education.
The role of indicators in education policies:
My presentation during an OECD international webinar: Supporting change in education: How countries are using indicators to monitor the progress of reforms
Education Spotlight: How to select indicators that support the implementation of education policies
Working paper: Developing indicators to support the implementation of education policies
Across OECD countries, the increasing demand for evidence-based policy making has further led governments to design policies jointly with clear measurable objectives, and to define relevant indicators to monitor their achievement. This paper discusses the importance of such indicators in supporting the implementation of education policies. Building on the OECD education policy implementation framework, the paper reviews the role of indicators along each of the dimensions of the framework, namely smart policy design, inclusive stakeholder engagement, and conducive environment. It draws some lessons to improve the contribution of indicators to the implementation of education policies, while taking into account some of their perennial challenges pertaining to the unintended effects of accountability. This paper aims to provide insights to policy makers and various education stakeholders, to initiate a discussion on the use and misuse of indicators in education, and to guide future actions towards a better contribution of indicators to education policy implementation.
Datamining PISA to explore the concept of Growth Mindset:
My presentation at the AERA: Can we improve student outcomes? Growth mindset, students, and schools in PISA
Report "Sky’s the limit: Growth mindset, students, and schools in PISA"
The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) included a measure of “growth mindset” in its last 2018 assessment. A concept much discussed in the field of psychology over the last few decades, growth mindset posits that underlying beliefs about intelligence affect learning motivation and students’ performance. This report summarises how growth mindset is associated with students’ characteristics, performance and well-being, teachers’ and schools’ practices, and policies at the system level based on the PISA 2018 data. It relates these findings to current growth mindset literature and practitioners’ experiences, and suggests avenues for future research.PISA in Focus "Can a growth mindset help disadvantaged students close the gap?"
Why do certain students thrive when facing adversity while others languish? In the mindset theory, growth mindset is opposed to fixed mindset, and could explain why some people fulfil their potential and others do not. With the COVID pandemic dragging on, having a growth mindset may be even more critical. For students who are able to set their own learning goals, elaborate learning strategies, and master their progress, the disruptive experience of school closing may be enriching. For students who are used to being led in their learning and who have little taste for steering their learning on their own, the experience may be devastating. This PISA in Focus analyses how growth mindset is related to the performance and well-being of 15-year-old students, and its potential implications in terms of equity.