Researcher, Education

Background of the project:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. Founded in 1933, the IRC works with people forced to flee from war, conflict and disaster and the host communities that support them, as well as with those who remain within their homes and communities.

IRC Bangladesh:

The IRC reaches over a million children annually with education and child protection programs in 25 countries around the world including Bangaldesh where the IRC has been present since March 2018. Since 2018 the IRC has moved quickly to expand its integrated emergency health and protection response through both direct and partner-based programming focused on primary healthcare, women’s protection and empowerment, sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence and child protection targeting Rohingya refugees in Cox’s BazarThe IRC is growing its programming to cover education and livelihoods/Disaster Risk Reduction, as well as its geographic foot print in the host community and to other parts of the country. For education, IRC Bangladesh aims to ensure that young children aged 0-5 develop cognitive and social emotional skills necessary for future academic success and wellbeing, school aged children (6-14) develop literacy, numeracy and social emotional skills, and adolescent girls (15 - 18) have education, protection and empowerment support through learning at the camp/host level as well as from expertise at the global level.

Airbel Impact Lab (IRC Research and Innovation Unit):

The IRC’s Research and Innovation Unit, the Airbel Impact Lab, designs, tests, and scales life-changing, cost-effective solutions for people affected by conflict and disaster. By applying the IRC’s deep technical expertise and field experience with a range of skills from the behavioral sciences, human-centered design, rigorous research, and multi-disciplinary problem-solving in humanitarian contexts, we work to develop breakthrough solutions that combine creativity and rigor, openness and expertise, and a desire to think afresh with the experience of a large-scale implementing organization.

Pop-Up Learning:

In April 2019, IRC Bangladesh and the Airbel Impact Lab launched the Pop-Up Learning pilot program in the refugee settlement of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh. The aim of the pilot was to evaluate whether and how tablet-based learning programs could help address the learning crisis in contexts where large numbers of individuals have been displaced and traditional schooling options are not available. Pop-Up Learning is a digital education program that puts evidence-based learning software in the hands of children who need it the most, to enable them to gain foundational numeracy and literacy skills. The goal of Pop-Up is to allow children to learn autonomously and with minimal supervision, navigating the software based on their own skill level and understanding of the academic content. The theory of change guiding the development of Pop-Up posits that by providing children in crisis settings with regular exposure to localized learning software, in community learning spaces, with minimal support from a local facilitator, would lead to improved literacy, numeracy and social-emotional skills. In the next phase of Pop-Up IRC Bangladesh and the Airbel Impact Lab will aim to solve for key design challenges from the 2019 pilot, run an implementation study, and launch and run a randomized controlled trial to study the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of the Pop-Up intervention.

Job Overview/Summary:

This position will work with members of the Airbel Impact Lab and IRC Bangladesh teams to advance the research on education, with responsibilities that will include planning for and implementing high quality research,analyzing data from interviews and focus groups, as well as implementation research, writing reports, and publishing high-quality research.

This position will provide research support to Pop-Up Learning in Bangladesh. The job will entail leading the qualitative component of a study, and contributing to the design and interpretation of the findings of a quantitative study. The role will report to the Senior Researcher, Education in the Airbel Impact Lab.

Scope of Work:

1. Contribute to design a study to test the theory of change of Pop-Up Learning and to gather data on cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
2. Design qualitative and quantitative instruments to:

   a. Explore the experiences of different stakeholders with the program and identify ways to better serve them

   b. Identify the quality and fidelity of the program implementation and the factors that enhance or hinder implementation

   c. Explore the the degree to which the program can help children learn literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills and better prepare them to transition into formal school in Bangladesh.

3. Analyze qualitative data from interviews and focus groups and write findings
4. Contribute to interpret findings from quantitative data
5. Provide technical input to the local Research Manager and data collection teams to ensure that the project obtains high quality data for the purposes of research
6. Advise and assist the local Research Manager and data collection teams onsetting up processes for high quality data collection
7. Contribute to dissemination of research findings by writing blogs, briefs, and publications in academic journals and practitioner-focused outlets;
8. Collaborate with colleagues within the IRC’s Research and Innovation Team (Airbel Impact Lab) and IRC Bangladesh Country Program in pursuit of the tasks above

Deliverables:

1. Final research and analysis plan
2. Final quantitative / qualitative tools
3. Clean data
4. Analysis of qualitative data
5. Review of report with quantative findings
6. Research blogs, briefs, and publications