PlayMatters Research Fellow

Project: PlayMatters (2020-2026) is an education initiative funded by 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 have been affected by displacement and trauma. Building on children’s amazing resilience and a growing evidence base supporting Learning through Play methodologies, PlayMatters cultivates holistic learning and well-being for children ages 3-12+. PlayMatters is led by the International Rescue Committee and includes Plan International, War Child Holland, Innovations for Poverty Action, and the Behavioral Insights Team. PlayMatters defines Learning through Play as an active teaching and learning method that capitalizes on a child’s natural desire to engage in play. Core elements include: 1) the adult facilitator intentionally plans and delivers contextually and age-appropriate guided playful experiences with clear learning objectives; 2) experiences promote interactions with people and/or materials that allow children to question, experiment, practice, and discover; 3) the facilitator deliberately creates and maintains a positive, safe, and inclusive environment for children, allowing children to feel comfortable and joyful.

Role: Evidence generation and use is core to the PlayMatters program. The PlayMatters Research Fellow will directly support the regional Research team to design, implement, and disseminate IRC-led PlayMatters research and learning activities that are taking place in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania. You will work closely with the regional team and country-based teams in support of a range of quality evidence-building and learning activities using a range of research methods. PlayMatters seeks to generate evidence to be used by a range of stakeholders in the Education field, including clients, government and non-government actors in our implementation contexts, and global actors working in the field of refugee education. This position will collaborate across teams to support the visualization and dissemination of PlayMatters evidence. Additionally, you will work with Education Researchers from the Airbel Impact Lab, IRC’s Research and Innovation Hub to coordinate activities.

In this role, you will have the opportunity to engage in activities around the visualization and dissemination of evidence for various audiences. This position will visualize data and findings in accessible formats using PlayMatters branding and design elements in a variety of mediums. This position will also be responsible for coordinating the dissemination of such content in appropriate fora (e.g., LinkedIn, Education sector Newsletters, etc.). This role will require flexibility (particularly to work across time zones), strong communication skills (both written and interpersonal coordination), a technical understanding of education research (particularly regarding teacher professional development in crisis-affected contexts), and strong design skills (infographics, briefs, etc.).

What you will learn about:

• Working at different levels in a large humanitarian organization.
• Applied Research in emergency/crisis-affected settings across the research life cycle.
• Supporting country teams to integrate learning activities into their work in support of strong and responsive implementation plans that incorporate evidence generation and use.

Potential deliverables: Fellows will not be accountable for all deliverables listed below. These deliverables cover possible deliverables the fellow could contribute to. Specific deliverables will be agreed upon based on interests and expertise during onboarding.

• Evidence Visualization: Develop infographics, posters, and other audio-visual products building on PlayMatters-generated evidence.
• Blog Posts and Website Articles: Write blog posts and website articles to summarize and disseminate study findings to increase PlayMatters’ evidence visibility.
• Client dissemination of data: Creating reports and/or visualizations for disseminating relevant data back to key client groups (schools).
• PlayMatters Evidence Series: Support the coordination and execution of the PlayMatters Evidence Series, public webinars for a global audience on PlayMatters research.

Work Environment: This fellowship will work with the Airbel Impact Lab based in the IRC’s HQ in New York City. While this fellowship is remote, all Fellows must be physically located in the US.

Fellowship Length: This fellowship carries a maximum of 35 hours/week during the summer semester (May 20 – August 25, 2024), with a possible extension into the Fall 224 semester. Potential extension carries a maximum of 20 hours/week during the Fall 2024 semester (August 26 – December 22, 2024).

How to apply: The deadline to apply is March 30, 2024. Please submit one PDF document containing a cover letter, CV/resume, and two work samples (writing and/or design portfolio – 5 pages maximum per sample) to Catherine McGahan, McGahanC@newschool.edu, and Nicole Tuszynski, tuszynsn@newschool.edu.

Interviews will be conducted in early April via Zoom.

Team: Airbel Impact Lab, Research and Innovation at the IRC. 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, 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. Within Airbel, the Best Use of Resources team provides analysis and decision-making support to improve the cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness of IRC programs.