Principal Investigators - PlayMatters 2.0 Tracer Study

Background of the project 

PlayMatters (2020-2025) is an education initiative funded through a $100 million grant from the LEGO Foundation. The program reimagines childhood for 800,000+ refugee and host-community children across Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda – children whose education and social development has been affected by displacement and trauma. Building on children’s amazing resilience and a growing evidence base supporting Learning through Play (LtP) methodologies, PlayMatters cultivates holistic learning for children ages 3-12+. PlayMatters is led by the International Rescue Committee and includes Plan International, War Child Holland, Innovations for Poverty Action, the Behavioral Insights Team in partnership with the LEGO Foundation. 

The Purpose of Research

In Tanzania, Research for PlayMatters will have two main components: A longitudinal study and implementation research. The longitudinal study will examine the extent to which the pre-primary PlayMatters packages support children’s primary school readiness and retention. Cohorts will be traced throughout the life of the PlayMatters project, with least three waves (comprised of baseline and endline) of data collected, per school calendar year.

Implementation research will be done to investigate the extent to which the PlayMatters project packages are implemented with quality (including fidelity/adherence, competencies/skills, etc) in the selected schools. Questions on what motivates and enables educators to adopt Learning through Play approaches in their classrooms with fidelity and quality will be addressed. Each school year will include a baseline and endline data collections (with midline data collection only if necessary) for both the longitudinal and implementation studies’ school samples during the 2022-2023, 2023-2024, and 2024-2025 school years. Data collection will include holistic development measures for children along with behavioral change elements for educators, systems actors, and community members using qualitative and quantitative tools.

Scope of Work:

The Local Principal Investigators will work with IRC country program team and the Regional PIs to carry out the research.

Tasks include:

●       Preparation and Planning

o   Participate in research team meetings convened by the IRC country program and Regional PIs

o   Review project documents

o   Refine research questions and contribute to research designs

o   Contribute to the identification and screening of case study schools screen potential case study

o   In collaboration with others, support the development, review and contextualization of data collection instruments

o   Ensure, in collaboration with Regional PI, approval of local ethics protocols and IRB (Institutional Review Board) review of study

o   Active participation in ongoing communication with the IRC team and points of contact (study co-Principal Investigators, PlayMatters Technical Lead, Education Coordinator, Senior Education Manager – Research, Deputy Director of Programs HR and Operation teams) throughout the course of the studies.

●       Data Collection

o   Participate in the data collection preparation workshop including cognitive pre-testing and piloting of data collection instruments

o   Lead ethnographic research in case study selected schools, using diverse methods, with the support of an interpreter, research assistants and/or enumerators, including detailed daily documentation of all observations and activities and backup of electronic data.

●       Data Analysis, Validation of Findings and Dissemination

o   Clean and carry out analysis of qualitative data from case study school, according to an analysis framework, using computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (nVivo or Dedoose) provided by PlayMatters

o   Supervise and provide data quality assurance during quantitative data collection and support quantitative data cleaning including learning assessments and other surveys.

o   Support the Regional PI to design and facilitate a country-level writing and interpretation workshop to validate findings with IRC and partner staff and stakeholders.

o   Lead country-level reporting and interpretation of findings of quantitative and qualitative studies, supported by regional PI and Country program teams.

o   Review and provide feedback to the final cross-national research reports.

o   Contribute to research and policy briefs with country-level and regional level findings for key local stakeholders (may be in English and/or Kiswahili).

o   Contribute to additional dissemination efforts by writing blogs (one per year), articles for submission to peer reviewed journals, and conducting other presentations of findings at conferences and other relevant forums.

This consultancy starts in March 2023.

Deliverables:

PI & CO PI

●       IRB application for all research studies

●       Clean case study dataset with all qualitative data (transcripts, pictures, video, etc.) and coding dictionary and schemes

●       Wave 1, Wave 2, and Wave 3 longitudinal research reports

●       Implementation research yearly reports (for the school years 2022-2023, 2023-2024, and 2024-2025) with summary of qualitative and quantitative results