#positive deviance

Having lived for a while in the South of France I think I know a good Bouillabaisse when I come across it. It’s tricky to make.

Having lived for a while in the South of France I think I know a good Bouillabaisse when I come across it. It’s tricky to make. It needs subtle things like leeks and orange peel. Pernod and saffron, as well as a good mix of fresh fish. There’s a little trick they use, adding a potato or two for thickening and as an indicator, the broth is cooked. I must say I didn’t expect to find it as well…

Chances are you have never heard of the term "Positive Deviance." Positive Deviance (PD) is a way of problem solving. Instead of looking at the bad and trying to correct for it, one looks at the good and tries to replicate it. Positive Deviance has implications for how we try to fix problems in education. But first, let's look at the most famous example of what positive deviance is: During the 1990's, nutritionists led by Jerry and Monique Sternin of Save the Children went to Vietnam to try and resolve a nationwide childhood malnutrition problem. No small task: solve a nationwide problem. To begin to fix the problem, the team went into a small village to investigate the practices of the villagers. In the past, the model to fix a problem like this was to supply the affected villages with food. Problem solved. (Donated food is only as good as long as the donations keep coming. Once the donations dry up, the problem returns.) The teams noticed that certain children did not show signs of malnutrition. These children were the poorest of the poor in the village. The team found that these children were drinking water from a pond that was for the "lesser" members of the village. These parents collected and prepared foods considered unsuitable for children like sweet potatoes, weeds, and crabs, washed their children's hands before meals, and fed them three to four times a day instead of the typical two meals a day provided for other children. All considered unusual. Yet, the pond contained microscopic brine shrimp, which provided nutrition to the children. The "dirty water" was actually better for kids because of the shrimp. The sweet potatoes, weeds, and crabs also were full of vitamins that other children had deficiencies in . Even though it was a "dirty" pond to drink from the deviant behavior (drinking from the pond) provided positive results. Likewise, eating the sweet potatoes and greens also provided nutrition, even though considered "low class behavior." Positive results from deviance. With the knowledge of what worked, the Sternin's team was able to affect change on a large scale in Vietnam. So much so that a 65% malnutrition rate in children changed to a 85% wellness rate in a few years. Since then, the idea of positive deviance as a driver for change has spread across the globe. Researchers at UTEP for instance, have looked at PD to cut down on recidivism of former inmates. How can we take the lessons of positive deviance and apply them in an educational setting? Consider how educators solve the problem of low test scores: When a student fails, educators look at what the student did. They look at the reasons for failure. According to Positive Deviance, they are looking in the wrong place. Teachers need to look at successful students and ask: Why were they successful? When looking at graduation rates for certain groups of students, instead of focusing on what the non-graduating students did wrong, a school should consider what similar students that did graduate did right. One of the main ideas of PD is that the group probably has the answer to the problem. Whatever the problem is. One needs to tease the answer out. There are six specific tenets to PD as stated in Wikipedia: Communities already have the solutions. They are the best experts to solve their problems. Communities self-organize and have the human resources and social assets to solve a problem. Know-how is not concentrated in the leadership of a community alone or in external experts but is distributed throughout the community. The PD enables the organization to seek and discover sustainable solutions to a given problem because the demonstrably successful uncommon behaviors are already practiced in that community. It is easier to change behavior by practicing it rather than knowing about it. "It is easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than think your way into a new way of acting". In education do we look at the low performing and try to fix, or do we look at the successful and try to make that the model? Next time you have problem, instead of trying to solve it the "old fashioned way" try positive deviance. The answer to your problem might be right under your nose all along. Read all about the Power of Positive Deviance:

Are People with Positive Traits Deviants in Society?: 8 Guinness Record Breakers in 2018

Why do people break rules and norms of society? How do we view deviant or “abnormal behavior of people in society?

There are basically 3 naive and non-sociological definitions on how to understand rule-breaking or deviant behavior of people in society:

1. Absolutist Definition: Deviance resides in the act itself. The evilness of an act is not in the person but in the nature of the act itself.…

I can across this Positive Deviance idea and checked out their website. I got to thinking that perhaps this approach can be used to institute positive change in how we do Professional Development. What do you think?

About PD

The Concept of Positive Deviance (PD) Think about this statement in terms of Professional Development--TBH

Positive Deviance is based on the observation that in every community there are certain individuals or groups (the positive deviants), whose uncommon but successful behaviors or strategies enable them to find better solutions to a problem than their peers. These individuals or groups have access to exactly the same resources and face the same challenges and obstacles as their peers.

What is the Positive Deviance Approach?

The PD approach is a strength-based, problem-solving approach for behavior and social change. The approach enables the community to discover existing solutions to complex problems within the community.

The PD approach thus differs from traditional "needs based" or problem-solving approaches in that it does not focus primarily on identification of needs and the external inputs necessary to meet those needs or solve problems. A unique process invites the community to identify and optimize existing, sustainable solutions from within the community, which speeds up innovation.

Here is some more info about the PD approach:

A problem solving, asset-based approach grounded in the fact that communities have assets or resources they haven’t tapped. Led by the community or organization member themselves, the approach enables them to discover then to leverage uncommon but successful behaviors or strategies from within the community to solve a perceived problem that requires behavior and social change. The PD approach brings about sustainable behavioral and social change by identifying solutions already existing in the system.

PD Guiding Principles:

The basic components and ingredients that give the PD approach its name. Including:

Collective endeavor: Community or stakeholders’ ownership of the whole process,

Social proof : their discovery of existing solutions (uncommon behaviors & strategies via a PD Inquiry) among their peers-people just like them, by people or groups whose behaviors need to change

Networks driven: Use of existing and created new social capital (formal and informal networks),

Focus on practice: Development of activities and initiatives that encourage practice of PD inquiry findings

Collective involvement in the monitoring of the new activities to promote behavior change, and evaluation of the overall initiative to have sustainable impact on the problem.

PD Methodology: Five basic steps which serve as the backbone of the approach. The 5 D's are:

Define the problem, its causes and common practices, and articulate desired outcome.

Determine presence of PDs,

Discover their uncommon but successful behaviors & strategies through PD inquiries,

Develop activities based on the inquiry findings

Discern (monitor and evaluate) the results.

Today, I gave a letter to someone I do not know very well. I follow him on Tumblr because his music is really awesome and I look up to him a lot. He's so quiet and calm and creative and I am none of those things. I'm spazzy and messy and altogether out of my mind with ideas. I'm like a dog chasing cars - I don't know what I'd do if I caught my ideas and really examined them - and if I actually caught one I'm worried I'd just get dragged across the pavement.

I wrote him a letter because he's been extra quiet lately. And I have been really worried all day that he would think I'm really creepy for responding to his Tumblr post through a letter I passed to him in the library but I realized something very important just a few hours ago.

My letter did not have bad intentions. It was just an expression of how much I care about him even though I don't know him very well and in hopes that I could give him any encouragement I could offer as his distant friend. In doing so, I realized that we have this stigma in society that we cannot do nice things for strangers or acquaintances, we worry about what people will think of us all the time and if we will be perceived in a way that is unfavorable to us. I worried that he might avoid me, think I'm creepy (my rabid imagination went so far as to think that he might even believe I pity him and take offense or some other ridiculousness).

I realized that I shouldn't care about those things. If I want to write a letter to someone in hopes that it will encourage them, I want to do it without feeling weird/guilty/like the world might end/like my face might explode. I want to be able to pay for someone's lunch in the line behind me - just because - and not feel like it's a big deal. It shouldn't be a big deal. Kindness should not surprise us or shock us. It should be a pleasant gift that is appreciated. It should be an impulse that we are unafraid to act on.

Linked to this article through a much more recent article on positive deviance in the nytimes, here.