Address
Form of workBackground: The mission of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster, including the climate crisis, to survive, recover and gain control over their future. The IRC works in more than 40 countries and over 20 U.S. cities. The IRC’s New Jersey Office for Refugees (NJOR) was established in October of 2016 to administer and coordinate refugee resettlement services funded by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement through sub-awards to 9 non-profit agencies. NJOR’s goal is to support the positive integration refugees in New Jersey, including supporting refugee students and their schools through the Refugee School Impact Program.
The IRC has been working with refugee and immigrant families and schools across the United States for more than 30 years. Since 2017, IRC has sought to develop and deliver high quality professional development to educators working with refugee and immigrant students, with a particular emphasis on social emotional learning. This work also draws on IRC’s globally recognized Healing Classrooms educator professional development resources and social emotional learning curriculum.
Building on content originally delivered via a workshop series during the fall of 2020, Supporting Social Emotional Learning among Students Affected by Forced Migration, and based on consultations with the NJ Office of Bilingual/ESL Education, NJOR is developing a series of four online courses, IRC Educators Series: Supporting Students Affected by Forced Migration, in support of teachers in NJ districts with high and/or growing newcomer student populations. However, these courses are also freely available to a global audience on the Kaya Humanitarian Leadership Academy. The first course, Toxic Stress and Well-being among Students Affected by Forced Migration, was released in 2021, and the second course, Well-Being for Educators of Students Affected by Forced Migration: Introduction to Mindfulness, was released in 2022. Two additional courses of approximately 45-minutes in length will be released in 2024 and 2025.
The project is being overseen and administratively coordinated by NJOR, with content, delivery and evaluation led by Sara Rowbottom, Senior Technical Advisor, Education & Youth for the International Rescue Committee.
Scope of work: NJOR is recruiting a consultant e-course Content Developer for the next e-course in the 4-course series. The course topic will be either Teaching Social Emotional Learning with Students Affected by Forced Migration or Supportive Classroom Management Strategies for Students Affected by Forced Migration as outlined here (decision pending stakeholder discussions and consultant availability). The consultant will work under the overall direction of the Senior Technical Advisor for Education & Youth, in close collaboration with NJOR and the course instructional designer and an IRC staff online course facilitator (see facilitators in prior-released courses), and will be responsible for the content development of one module.
Specific tasks:
- Preparation:
- Review IRC’s best practices for online learning development and orient to Kaya to ensure content developed takes into account adequate methodologies and tools for online engagement.
- Review and evaluate and adapt existing content developed by IRC for inclusion (training curricula, reports, presentations, internal material, etc.).
- Prepare a detailed work plan with timeline
- Content Development & Scripting
- Develop Course Outline (goal, lessons, topics) and propose anchoring micro-learning assets such as videos, graphics, reflection guides, animations, case studies, etc.
- Develop the course script
- Develop content for course assets, knowledge checks, assessment, and feedback course content aligned with the goals and learning objectives
- Provide & respond to feedback
- Receive and incorporate feedback from the course development team
- Provide feedback to instructional designer
- Refine content based on reviews and testing findings
Timeline: January - April 2024
January: Preparation
February: Content Development & Scripting
March-April: Design & Development
May: Testing, Publishing & Evaluation
The e-course consultant will be involved in all phases, however the majority of time and effort will be concentrated in the Content Development & Scripting phase.
Deliverables:
- Detailed work plan and timeline
- Course outline with anchor resources and proposed course assets
- Draft course script
- Draft content for course assets, knowledge checks & assessment (e.g. graphics concept/mock up; questions & answers, reflection activity, graphic organizer, etc.)
- Final course script
- Final content for course assets, knowledge checks & assessment
Minimum Qualifications:
Qualifications:
- Subject matter expertise in teaching multi-lingual immigrant and refugee students in middle and/or high school, including teaching social-emotional learning, culturally responsive and sustaining and trauma-informed education
- At least 3 years working in a school setting, including teaching students affected by forced migration and training/coaching other educators
- Knowledge of instructional design and experience creating dynamic content for online learning modules and online training, preferred
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in education preferred
- Excellent written and oral communication skills and ability to work well in a remote team
- Flexibility, creativity and problem-solving skills
- Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
- Ability to work with remote teams
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English
To Apply:
Interested candidates should submit an expression of interest to Sara.Rowbottom@rescue.org with a cover letter stating qualifications, resume, financial proposal, including base rate and total, and at least one relevant work sample. Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis. The job announcement will be closed when a candidate is selected.Commitment to Gender, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: The IRC is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, respectful, and safe work environment where all persons are treated fairly, with dignity and respect. The IRC expressly prohibits and will not tolerate discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or bullying of the IRC persons in any work setting. We aim to increase the representation of women, people that are from country and communities we serve, and people who identify as races and ethnicities that are under-represented in global power structures.
