Teachers working in remote areas in LAC: A call to better understand who they are and their professional development needs

By Dante Castillo-Canales, Rocío Vidal, and Francesca Bonomelli

Over the past months, the Empowering Teachers Network in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has been reflecting on the challenges that large-scale TPD systems face in the region. During the working sessions, several key themes have emerged concerning the factors that hinder or enable in-service teachers’ access to and participation in quality teacher training: availability of time, access to ICTs, awareness or incentives to take part in training opportunities, among others. From an equity perspective, a critical group of teachers that remain particularly overlooked are those working in remote areas—such as island territories, isolated rural regions, or communities where indigenous languages are predominantly spoken rather than the national official languages.

Who are they, how many are there, and what are their professional development needs? The truth is, we don’t really know. Surprisingly, we lack the data needed to answer these fundamental questions—and that is a serious issue. The category and operationalization of teachers working in remote areas is still underdeveloped, making it difficult to generate accurate, disaggregated, and reliable information. This reality might hinder the capacity of policymakers and organizations to design and implement localized support for teachers in these contexts. 

Where are teachers located?

Teachers can be categorized by geographic location—those working in continental versus insular areas; by setting—urban or rural; or by the linguistic context in which they teach—such as those working with students who speak any of the more than 550 Indigenous languages across the region. Yet, finding detailed information on these categories in national education records remains extremely difficult, leaving a blind spot in our understanding of these educators’ practices and experiences.

Geographic distribution

Latin America is home to thousands of islands, yet the dominant imagination often portrays them as paradisiacal—wild, untouched, sparsely populated edens. However, the reality is that many of these islands are inhabited by communities where children attend school and are taught by teachers who face unique, locally rooted educational challenges. For example, Brazil has more than 2,000 islands; Mexico has over 4,000, 143 of which are inhabited; Chile has an astonishing 43,471 islands although only a few are populated; and Panama has more than 1,520 islands including many inhabited territories. Teachers working in these contexts likely face limited access to training opportunities and systemic exclusion from TPD programs despite playing a crucial role in upholding the right to education in geographically isolated settings.

Looking at the urban–rural distribution in Latin America likewise reveals important challenges in achieving equity for teachers. Over the past 60 years, the rural population in the region has hovered around 120 million people. However, its proportion relative to the total population has decreased significantly—from 56% in 1960 to just 18% by 2020. Despite this demographic shift, rural schools still account for more than 30% of all educational institutions in the region. These schools often serve communities facing higher levels of unmet social needs and social exclusion, highlighting persistent inequalities in access to quality education and support services for rural populations. 

Language diversity

Beyond national official languages—mainly Spanish and, in Brazil, Portuguese—, Latin America remains one of the most linguistically diverse regions in the world, home to around 550 indigenous languages. Given this, many teachers work in intercultural educational contexts, which adds several challenges and complexity to the teaching process. For instance, in Argentina, Guaraní and Quechua have over one million speakers in the northern region known as the “Gran Norte.” In Ecuador, 14 Indigenous languages are officially recognized; Kichwa alone is spoken by more than 800,000 people, many from indigenous communities. In Honduras, there are 10 indigenous languages, with Lenca spoken by over 110,000 people and Miskito by approximately 50,000. Panama is home to at least 19 indigenous languages. One of them, Guaimí—spoken by the Ngäbe people—is the second most spoken language in the country, with over 260,000 speakers, primarily in the Ngäbe-Buglé comarca (an autonomous indigenous territory in Panama). Teachers working in these linguistically diverse contexts are likely to require specialized training and support to navigate multilingual classrooms.

Rethinking professional needs further

We know there are teachers working in small schools on remote islands; in rural areas, requiring days of travel to reach their classrooms; and in communities where students speak indigenous languages rather than the official national language. We can identify them as teachers working in remote areas. However, our understanding of their professional needs remains highly incomplete. Rethinking equity in large-scale teacher professional development (TPD) systems requires placing the needs of these often-overlooked populations at the centre of policy agendas. 

Identifying who these teachers are—and understanding their specific challenges—is an urgent task. Despite progress in recent decades, TPD systems in the region still exhibit fragile institutional structures that limit their ability to provide meaningful learning opportunities for all teachers, but especially for those working in such contexts. 

A call for an action agenda 

When it comes to teachers working in remote areas, a significant knowledge gap persists, limiting the ability to provide them support for quality TPD. Addressing this gap requires taking at least three key actions to identify and characterize this group of teachers: 

• First, bring the issue to the attention of education authorities, ministries of education, and other national data-gathering agencies. This step should prioritize putting the issue in the agenda in order to better understand who they are and their working conditions. 
• Second, advance towards a clear characterization of teachers in remote areas by utilizing existing data from official records and statistics. In cases where such data is lacking, it becomes essential to develop targeted surveys for data collection. 
• Finally, conduct in-depth studies. This will allow us to understand the specific challenges faced by teachers in remote areas. This evidence will inform the design and implementation of professional development programs to support quality and equitable professional development.

Dante, Rocío, and Francesca are from SUMMA, which jointly developed and manages with FIT-ED the Empowering Teachers Initiative (ETI). ETI is a Research for Development program, developed by SUMMA and FIT-ED, that seeks to improve teacher practices in the Global South by improving equity, quality, and efficiency in TPD systems. More information on ETI here.

The Empowering Teachers Network in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is an ETI working group focused on reflecting about the challenges of teacher professional development (TPD) in the region. More than 17 organizations are taking part in the network, meeting regularly to share knowledge, good practices, and experiences of TPD programs, and discussing how to improve large-scale TPD systems in LAC. This group is also participating in a Global Learning Cycle through the online open course on TPD@Scale.