Current Issues in Comparative Education (CICE) - Volume 20 - Issue 1 - Teachers as Human Capital or Human Beings? USAID’s Perspective on Teachers

Oct 15, 2026

Analyzes three USAID education strategy documents (1998, 2005, 2011) and USAID project proposal requests to examine how teachers are represented. Findings show USAID strategies frame teachers as human capital and policy implementers rather than as human beings and key stakeholders in educational dialogue and decision-making. Results are compared with a parallel analysis of World Bank education strategy documents.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages25

Reading Time1 h 3 min

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Introduction

Components of Teacher Policy

Teacher policy dimensions and regrouping for analysis

Current Issues in Comparative Education (CICE) Volume 20, Issue 1, Fall 2017 Teachers as Human Capital or Human Beings? USAID’s Perspective on Teachers Mark Ginsburg University of Maryland & Universidad de Ciencias Pedagogigas Enrique José Varona (Visiting Professor) This article analyzes three USAID education strategy documents (1998, 2005, and 2011) as well as USAID’s requests for proposals for three projects to assess how teachers are represented. The main findings indicate that USAID education strategy documents a) treat teachers as human capital, a human resource input, rather than as human beings and b) characterize teachers as implementers of policy rather than as key stakeholders who should also be involved in dialogue and decision making about educational policy at various levels of the system. These findings are compared with those resulting from a similar analysis of World Bank education strategy documents. Introduction On 25 September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 17 proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) . They included “Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”Associated with Goal 4 were seven indicators and three means of implementation, including “4c: By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing states”(UN, 2015) . Among the many sources contributing to framing the SDGs was the document produced at the World Education Forum 2015, held in Incheon, Republic of Korea, 22-25 May 2015. This document, Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action: Towards Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education and Lifeline Learning for All, presents as target 4c the words that were included in the above-quoted SDG\#4 means of implementation, elaborating that: Teachers are the key to achieving all of the Education 2030 agenda ... As teachers are a fundamental condition for guaranteeing quality education, teachers and educators should be empowered, adequately recruited and remunerated, motivated, professionally qualified, and supported within well-resourced, efficient and effectively governed systems. (UNESCO et al., 2015, p. 21) Moreover, Education 2030, articulates that ‘teachers and educators, and their organizations, are crucial partners in their own right and should be engaged at all stages © 2017, Current Issues in Comparative Education, Teachers College, Columbia University. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Current Issues in Comparative Education 20(1), 6-30. Teachers as Human Capital or Human Beings? of policy-making, planning, implementation and monitoring”(UNESCO et al., 2015, p. 24) . This article explores what key strategy documents of the Government of the United States and, more specifically, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), focus on in terms of teacher policies. I report on a content analysis of the following documents, which present the Agencies’ core strategies in the education sector from the late 1990s: • USAID (1998): U.S. Agency for International Development USAID's Strategic Framework for Basic Education in Africa. • USAID (2005): Improving Lives through Learning: USAID Education Strategy; and • USAID (2011): Education Opportunity through Learning: USAID Education Strategy. While the USAID documents analyzed in this article were published years before the SDGs were adopted in 2015, global discourses on teacher policies and teachers’ role date back at least to the 1960s (e.g., ILO & UNESCO, 1966) . Thus, it seems reasonable to analyze the teacher policies identified in USAID strategy documents. Components of Teacher Policy As stated in the Teacher Policy Development Guide (International Task Force on Teachers for Education for All, 2015, pp. 13-14),“a holistic, natio

FAQs

Which USAID documents are analyzed in the study?

The study analyzes USAID education strategy documents from 1998, 2005, and 2011, along with USAID requests for proposals for three projects assessing how teachers are represented.

What is the central finding about how USAID represents teachers?

USAID documents treat teachers as human capital and as implementers of policy, rather than as human beings and key stakeholders who should participate in education policy dialogue and decision-making.

How does the article relate its teacher-policy framework to broader global goals?

It connects teacher-policy framing to education-related SDG discussions, including the Education 2030 emphasis on empowering and engaging teachers and educators at all stages of policy-making.

Oct 15, 2026

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