In Peru, local leadership is an authorized feature of education governance. The use of two hundred twenty-four Local Education Management Units (UGELs) within a tiered national framework creates formal entry points for local leadership and participation, although translating decentralization into genuinely contextualized and locally responsive education policy remains an ongoing challenge. Participatory frameworks of education governance still face persistent structural and cultural barriers, especially in rural areas, which in turn reduces student learning outcomes.
In San Marcos, a province in the Andean highlands of Cajamarca, 92.5% of residents live in rural areas and nearly half of families live in poverty. Even within the context of greater urbanization in Ascope, La Libertad, only two in ten primary students will reach expected reading levels. At the same time, these challenges coexist with locally driven efforts to define and advance shared educational priorities: student leadership in San Marcos, as a pathway to strengthen young people’s voice and agency, and literacy in Ascope, as a priority around which educators, authorities, and families have begun to align.
Recognizing the importance of investing in education system transformation from the ground up, Enseña Perú has worked for more than sixteen years to catalyze a leadership movement of young people across the country. Their work in partnership with UGELs and other local actors reorients shared goals for educational improvement around local priorities and reclaims agency on behalf of students and communities. Because of these efforts, Enseña Perú envisions that by 2032, at least eight out of ten children and young people in Perú will receive a transformative education.
Enseña Perú’s organizational purpose is to catalyze collective education systems transformation. A curiosity about commitment- what drives people to commit, what are the enablers, and what are the barriers- is one analytical lens with which Enseña Perú views education systems transformation. In 2024, their dedication to further researching this commitment led Enseña Perú to partner with the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. As a member of the Network for Education Systems Transformation, Enseña Perú continues to use this framework to drive their work in local schools and communities.
Within two districts, San Marcos and Ascope, Enseña Perú has worked with UGELs to facilitate participatory research. In both instances, existing educational priorities, student leadership in San Marcos and literacy in Ascope, provided a starting point to explore educational engagement. With these personalized goals in mind, Enseña Perú set out to improve student outcomes in collaboration with local communities.
From the beginning of the research process, meaningfully involving a wide array of stakeholders was a priority for Enseña Perú. Advisory Committees with students, families, teachers, and other key stakeholders, were formed not to provide passive representation but to co-design and implement the research plan in its entirety. From start to finish, the committees in each territory played a leading role in determining the research focus, tools and methodology, and overall approach to the process. Committee members became the true heart of the research, modeling what it means to realistically conduct collaborative research. As one participant described, “This is a research project in which we all contribute and our opinions are taken into account.”
The collaborative research in both San Marcos and Ascope, as directed by the Advisory Committees, has produced key findings on the underlying attitudes and ideas within the education systems. The committees have already taken the next steps in producing tangible change based on the results of their research, continuing to focus on addressing local priorities with local solutions.
In Ascope, research results demonstrated that emotions play a significant role in literacy. To incorporate an emotional aspect into literacy within schools, students and teachers collaborated to design a survey of students’ reading interests and preferences. As the research team searches for stronger outlets for student voice, the survey has been viewed as an emerging tool for garnering greater student input. If proven to be useful in its pilot sessions, the survey results may then inform future pedagogical decisions.
Research results from San Marcos revealed that the community lacked a clear understanding of what student leadership, an abstract term, would practically look like in their school systems. After collectively discussing what student leadership means, the ongoing work of the new leadership committee is focused on a participatory collection of student leadership stories. This responds to a central finding: student leadership is highly mobilizing, but it is often understood narrowly as something linked to winning contests, leading projects, or occupying formal roles. The story collection seeks to make visible broader and more everyday forms of student leadership.
As the Advisory Committees’ results poured in, so did a new understanding of what participatory research truly is, informed by the committee members’ firsthand experiences. Throughout the process, members, whether students, parents, teachers, or administrators, learned to utilize the committee as a platform for exercising their own agency over the future of education. Members began to recognize the value of their own input in designing solutions that work for everyone, which coincided with a growing appreciation for the contributions of others.
A growing curiosity about the Advisory Committee members’ experiences has seen the expansion of participatory research. Community members are learning how to recreate the cooperative environment of the committees by embedding collaborative practices into their own contexts. This demand for resources led the committees to create a toolkit of participatory research techniques, including how to effectively run meetings, foster an atmosphere of collaboration, and provide community activations.
The next phase will focus on strengthening these locally led structures and expanding collaborative research practices to new communities. Enseña Perú and its partners will support local actors in finalizing and reflecting on the work in San Marcos and Ascope. Now, the findings from both projects can be translated into accessible resources, ensuring that the momentum generated by this research becomes embedded in everyday educational decision‑making. This ongoing work will help deepen a culture of shared leadership so that more students, families, and educators can actively shape the future of learning in their territories.
This story was documented in collaboration with Valeria Duarte from Enseña Perú— a member organization of Network on Education Systems Transformation (NEST). The story was edited by Madeline Chandler and Mashhood Bhat from Brookings Center for Universal Education.
The Network for Education Systems Transformation (NEST) is a global network co-led by civil society organizations from the Global South united to understand and catalyze the transformation of education systems to help all learners develop a breadth of skills. NEST member organizations are located in 11 countries across Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, North America, and South Asia. The Center for Universal Education (CUE) at Brookings, seated in the U.S. is the 11th organization in the network and serves as the coordinating entity.
