Title: Part-Time Research Assistant (Hourly)

Division/Department: Steinhardt/IHDSC-Global TIES for Children

Work Location: New York University, Washington Square * Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, our research center is working remotely until the University authorizes our safe return to the office.*

Work Schedule: Variable

Salary: $27.50/hour

Benefits Eligible: No

Start Date: January 18, 2021

About Global TIES for Children

At New York University's (NYU's) Global TIES for Children we design, evaluate and advise on programs and policies to improve the lives of children and youth in the most vulnerable regions across the globe. Led by University Professors Larry Aber and Hiro Yoshikawa, we work with some of the world's leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and with governments in low-income (LI) and conflict-affected (CA) countries on developing and evaluating innovative approaches to promoting the health, education, and social development of children and their communities. Together with our key strategic partner organizations, our work leverages cutting-edge scientific methods and interdisciplinary collaboration to:            

• Generate actionable evidence to promote child and youth development by conducting and evaluating powerful strategies to transform relevant "social settings" (i.e., classrooms, schools, families, communities, etc.) that are key drivers of children's learning and well-being;
• Communicate actionable evidence by engaging diverse stakeholders across sectors and regions and disseminating a rigorous evidence base to inform program and policy decisions for children and youth in LI and CA countries; and 
• Build human, administrative, and institutional capacity for a robust global science and practice through the provision of professional development and training activities.

About Global TIES' Early Childhood Development in Emergency and Conflict (ECDEC) program and the Play to Learn and Ahlan Simsim Initiatives

The Rohingya and Syrian refugee crises are two of the defining humanitarian issues of our time, with millions displaced due to conflict and war. In addition, we know from decades of research that all children need nurturing care, a comforting routine, and opportunities to learn through play in the critical first years of life. Yet only about 3 percent of humanitarian assistance goes to education, and only a tiny sliver of that 3 percent to early childhood development services. 

The Play to Learn initiative is a partnership between Sesame Workshop, BRAC, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), and NYU Global TIES for Children to develop, provide and evaluate high-quality early childhood development services and mass media for young children in Rohingya refugee families in Cox's Bazar.  Ahlan Simsim is a partnership between Sesame Workshop, the IRC, and NYU Global TIES for Children to develop, provide and evaluate high-quality early childhood development services and mass media for young children in Syrian refugee families in the Middle East.  Research for these projects are implemented in three countries in the Middle East -- Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq – and in Cox's Bazar district, Bangladesh.  These partnerships are funded by a $100 million grant from the LEGO Foundation (Play to Learn) and the inaugural 100&Change award from the MacArthur Foundation (Ahlan Simsim). NYU Global TIES for Children is leading the external evaluations of the programming in these projects, including formative and implementation research, impact evaluations, and a large longitudinal prenatal-cohort study in Bangladesh. 

We partner with Sesame Workshop, BRAC and the IRC to bring the most rigorous qualitative and quantitative evidence to bear on how to best serve families and children in these communities.  We pay special attention to measurement of multiple domains of early childhood development, as well as observational measurement of the quality of implementation of programming in homes, centers, and communities.

Position Summary

The Early Childhood Development in Emergency & Conflict (ECDEC) program is seeking up to ten (10) part-time research assistants fluent in written and spoken Arabic to be involved in coding and analyzing data for an Ahlan Simsim mixed-methods research study assessing the impact of a phone-based home-visiting program in Jordan on caregivers' health and child development. Reach Up and Learn (RUL) is a home-visiting program that was introduced in Jamaica in 1975. The program was later adapted to serve Syrian refugees in the Syrian Response region and implemented by the International Rescue Committee. Originally, the intervention was delivered in-person by a number of Community Health Volunteers (CHVs). Recently it has been adapted to be delivered over the phone due to the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19). CHVs will call caregivers three times a month to (1) check in on their well-being; (2) deliver health messages and (3) tell them about the stimulation activities. This position involves listening to and coding the phone calls delivered in Arabic. Undergraduate Project Assistants will be involved in coding and analyzing transcripts of conversations with caregivers, community health volunteers, and supervisors. They will also be involved in coding recorded phone calls on a quantitative instrument of implementation quality. Training will be provided by ECDEC project staff leading the study.

Hours and length of the position is variable and dependent on the amount and schedule of data collection. We anticipate anywhere from 2-15 hours of work per week. The position is available to begin as early as January 18, 2021.