Continuous Professional Development Specialist job at JSI

JOB DETAILS:
World Education, a division of JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. (JSI/WE) is dedicated to improving people’s lives around the world through greater health, education and socioeconomic equity for individuals and communities, and to providing an environment where people of passion can pursue this cause.

JSI/WE is seeking a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) specialist for a five-year USAID funded Targeting the Learning Crisis (TLC) Activity in Uganda, which aims to create sustained, measurable improvements in development outcomes in Basic Education through Targeted Instruction for foundational skills, a learner-centric pedagogy that reorganizes math and literacy instruction based on children’s actual learning levels, rather than on the prescribed grade-level syllabus. The Activity seeks to implement cost-effective, sustainable, and impactful programming, centered in P1-5, and evidence-based early childhood education for pre-primary years, in order to significantly improve math and reading learning outcomes for Ugandan primary students.

RESPONSIBILITIES
The CPD Specialist is a full-time position and will be based in Lira, Uganda. She/He will play a key role in strengthening training and CPD support to teachers, school leadership, and other education stakeholders in Primary schools. This position will focus on enhancing CPD opportunities and outcomes through evidence-based methodologies and integration of adult learning principles. Particular attention will be given to integration of play-based learning approaches in early child care and education (ECCE) and P1-5 and inclusion of targeted instruction. This will include participatory learning based on Teaching at the Right Level interventions already taking place in Uganda. The CPD Specialist will work closely with the Basic Education and ECCE Technical Leads, other partners in the consortium, and Ministry counterparts. He/She will help lead the implementation of JSI/WE’s program activities in the TLC target districts and provide technical support and monitoring of consortium partners’ activities in the districts and local governments.

The CPD SPECIALIST reports to the Basic Education Technical Lead

• Work with senior technical leadership to develop a sustainable CPD model for ECCE and P1-5 teachers, head teachers and deputy head teachers.
• Employ a proven coaching protocol and procedure that will be implemented at the school, cluster and district level and monitored in collaboration with MoES, local government counterparts and foundation bodies.

• Provide technical support to MoES, NCDC, UNITE, and other relevant stakeholders in exploring innovative and sustainable approaches for teachers to receive regular and quality CPD support through increased coaching, mentoring, and peer/professional learning communities.

• Collaborate with TLC Technical Leads, consortium partners, and relevant Ministry departments and agencies to contribute to the development, review, and/or revision of TLC reading and numeracy instructional materials.

• Ensure all teacher behavior and learning materials are gender-sensitive, respond to needs of children with disabilities, and be respectful of student diversities.
• Collaborate with local universities and research institutions, and consortium partners to conduct action research on effective teaching and learning strategies and CPD that incorporate play-based learning and targeted instruction.

• Support the development of effective school management routines to improve time on task by reducing absenteeism and applying effective pedagogy.
• Include capacity building for Head Teachers, Deputies and School Management Committees in the CPD approach.

• Monitor and provide technical support to the activities implemented by consortium partners in the TLC target districts, local governments, and PTCs, ensuring that partners participate actively in collaboration, learning, and adapting (CLA) with the goal of developing an adapted model that can be taken up and sustained by the government.
• Collaborate with ECCE Technical Lead and the ECCE consortium partners to develop an evidence based ECCE model that will be informed by Centre and cluster based CPDs as well as learning circles.

• Co-develop with partners training models for ECCE and Caregivers’ Centres with approaches to support step-down training district and sub-county level to caregivers at community and school level.
• Support the ECCE Technical Lead and consortium partners in training caregivers and ECCE teachers to develop and use low-cost manipulatives to visualize concepts, promoting playful and participatory learning experiences.
• Work with the ECCE Technical Lead, MEL Director and ECCE consortium partners to develop practical coaching and supervision tools for ECCE Centre Committees

• Conduct quarterly monitoring visits with MoES, PTC and district education officials to document lessons learned, and make programmatic adaptations.
• Collaborate with the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team to track teacher uptake, learning gains and program outcomes.
• Ensure that in of line of duty, S/He is aware of child safeguarding principles and guidelines and apply it in your day-to-day roles as you interact with communities and children.
• Ensure promotion of safe child practices and mitigation, prevention and reporting of violations of children to ensure compliance; and
• Perform any other tasks required for the needs of the project as assigned by the supervisor or designee.

Qualifications
• Master’s degree in Education, Literacy, Curriculum Development, Organizational Development, or a related field.
• At least 5 years of experience in designing and implementing education and training interventions for ECCE, and primary education, preferably in low-resource settings.
• Proven experience in teacher training and coaching, with a focus on continuous professional development at scale.
• Strong knowledge of Teaching at the Right Level, play-based learning, participatory teaching strategies, and formative assessment and remediation methodologies.
• Familiarity with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and inclusive education practices.
• Excellent facilitation and stakeholder coordination skills, including experience working with government entities and education stakeholders.
• Experience developing teacher training and CPD materials.
• Experience conducting research on teaching and learning strategies and CPD strongly desired.
• Good interpersonal skills at work, good ability to integrate into a multidisciplinary team and having a strong sense of team spirit and work;
• Relevant experience with USAID-funded programs and knowledge of USAID rules, and regulations strongly desired;
• Excellent verbal and written English
• Proficiency in more than one Ugandan local language

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: 60

Level of Education: Postgraduate Degree

Job application procedure
JSI/WE is committed to protecting the populations we serve from exploitation, sexual abuse, child abuse and child neglect. We are a child-safe organization and the safety and wellbeing of children is a priority of our organization, as is the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse in any form. We have zero-tolerance for such behavior and we will take every measure to prevent such incidents. We have robust recruitment procedures to ensure that all staff are suited to work with the communities served by our programs.

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