Requisition ID: req20216

Job Title: Call for Proposals - INEE Distance Education Social Network Analysis

Sector: Education

Employment Category: Consultant

Employment Type: Full-Time

Open to Expatriates: Yes

Location: IRC Global

Job Description

Introduction

The Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) is recruiting an individual, team of consultants, or consulting firm with research and experience in conducting Social Network Analysis for the Distance Education ecosystem in crisis-affected countries.

This consultancy requires skill sets both in distance education research as well as proficient knowledge of the education in emergencies field with an aim to map working of various network entities/ stakeholders in the distance education landscape of selected countries. INEE is ideally looking for individual consultants, a research team with combined experience, or a consulting firm with this expertise.

Background:

The Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) is an open, global network that works to ensure all persons the right to quality education and a safe learning environment in emergencies and post-crisis recovery. INEE is composed of more than 17,500 practitioners, students, teachers, staff from UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, donors, governments (including Ministries of Education), and universities who work together within a humanitarian and development framework. INEE serves its members through the core functions of community-building, convening diverse stakeholders, maintaining knowledge management, amplifying and advocating, facilitating and learning, and providing members with the resources and support they need to carry out their work on education in emergencies.

Established in November 2020, the INEE Distance Education Reference Group (DERG) includes 40 members from 27 organizations from government agencies, NGOs, multilateral agencies, academia, and the private sector. The group is chaired by an INEE Distance Education Coordinator and co-chaired by UNHCR and the Carey Institute for Global Good. The DERG focuses on elevating the distance education needs of young people in emergencies and humanitarian settings. The DERG intentionally embraces a far-reaching definition of distance education to encompass all relevant and viable high-, low-, and no-tech solutions to support out-of-school learning during challenging times.

Objectives:

In the abundance of research on education during Covid-19, particularly in crisis contexts, there remains little or no analysis of relationships and interdependencies that are necessary to assure preparation, provision, and access to distance education in low-to high tech contexts.

The objective of this assignment is to capitalize on the potentials of information flow through different networks by identifying, collecting, and analyzing the information related to distance education focusing on emergencies and refugee settings.

The stated objective will be achieved by mapping and analysing:

The information collected and analyzed from these networks will help to review the existing approaches of distance education in emergencies and will be used to propose a realistic model by highlighting limitations, relationships, and opportunities for distance education in emergencies and refugee settings.

Please see the annex below on What is Social Network Analysis for more details of what we are looking for.*

Responsibilities / Scope of Work:

Under the supervision of the INEE Distance Education Coordinator INEE, and working in consultation with the INEE Reference Group (DERG), the consultant(s) will:

Deliverables:

• Develop and submit inception report covering methodology for conducting the Social Network Analysis. This document is based on the understanding of the consultant, methodology to be used, data collection method, stakeholders’ identification method, and analysis. 3 Days
• Develop a detailed work plan covering the activities for assignment and related required resources. 2 Days
• Conduct preliminary data collection, its analysis and mapping exercises to research the interaction among networks. 20 Days
• Submit a first draft and a final version of the report for review and incorporation of feedback from the INEE Secretariat and DERG, including details by categories/subcategories, methodology, limitations of the study, and recommendations. All row data must be included in the report as an annex(es). 10 Days

Qualifications

Required Skills & Qualification

Senior Professional (Program & Research Lead)

• Ph.D or Masters in data science, Mathematics, Social sciences or discipline relevant to Social Network Analysis, and Big/ Data Analysis

• At least 7-10 years of experience working with educational research in emergencies

• Must have demonstrated experience in Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis.

• Demonstrated skills in using analytical tools such as Nvivo, SPSS, STATA and Qualtrics etc.

• Demonstrated having conducted at least 2 similar research projects in education

• Must have experience in conducting SNA, analyzing and visualization of complex data gathered from unstructured sources.

• Must have demonstrated experience in analytical techniques such as text mining, predictive analysis, event identification and detection

Junior Professional (Research Associate)

• M.A. (or B.A. with significant corresponding professional experience) in a relevant field, such as data science, statistics, or educational research, education in crisis contexts,

• 3-5 years of demonstrated project management experience in education / research projects or educational research

• Candidate must have 3-5 yrs of experience in :

➔ Assisting in the management of research projects

➔ Administering survey tools (Google forms, Typeforms, zoho etc )

➔ Participating or supporting the conducting of educational research

➔ Knowledge of educational research paradigms and frameworks

➔ Managing and interacting with partners or clients

➔ Employing INEE tools and resources especially the INEE Minimum Standards,

Key Working Relationships:

Consultant(s) reports to: INEE Distance Education Coordinator

Indirect reporting: INEE Thematic Areas Team Lead, INEE Director, INEE DERG Co-Chairs and members, INEE Secretariat, INEE Steering Group
External contacts: Donor agencies, academic institutions, and other relevant stakeholders working in distance education or EiE sector. The consultant(s) is expected to be available for a virtual inception meeting with INEE and is expected to participate in other relevant meetings as required.

Payment Rate and Schedule:

Kindly submit a proposal letter, detailed work plan, sample of work, and the curriculum vitae(s) of all team members to asim.latif@inee.org. Email subject line: INEE Distance Education SNA Consultancy. The cover letter should include familiarity with carrying out similar assignments and specific experience in the areas of Distance Education, Education in Emergencies Crises and SNA. Kindly indicate the proposed daily rate, and the total fee for the project in USD.

INEE believes that diversity and inclusion among our teammates is critical to our success as a global network. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. People of color, women, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+ individuals are strongly encouraged to apply. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, disability or any protected category prohibited by local, state or federal laws.

• Annexure: What is Social Network Analysis?

Social network analysis, which focuses on relationships among social entities, is used widely in the social and behavioral sciences, as well as in economics, marketing, and industrial engineering. When social network analysis is undertaken, the underlying assumption is that network structure, and the properties of that structure have significant implications on the outcome of interest.

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is based upon an understanding that individuals in a social system are interdependent and that these underlying relationships shape opportunities and outcomes in ways that require distinct analytic techniques. In education SNA remains an extremely powerful yet underutilized methodological approach in education.

In the abundance of research on education during Covid-19, particularly in crisis contexts, there remains little or no analysis of relationships and interdependencies that are necessary to assure preparation, provision, and access to distance education in low-to high tech contexts.

For ensuring longer term and sustainable learning gains in EiE scenarios, it is imperative that all actors including INEE work in synchronization with each other. The distance education ecosystem is evolving at a rapid pace ever since SARS-Covid-02 was declared a pandemic. The proposed study being commissioned almost one and half year into the pandemic will aim to capture the response, adaptation, and outlook of DE ecosystems.

Given that the mission of INEE is to focus on communities in emergency and crisis contexts, this will be the area of focus for the research. We would be interested in eliciting a deeper understanding of the landscape of provision for refugee communities in targeted countries. Selection of the two countries will be finalized at a later stage from the wider group of countries that are classed as hosting the largest number of refugees i.e

Ethiopia, Turkey, Bangladesh, Uganda, Sudan, Kenya, Columbia, Pakistan or Cameroon. [1][2]

Examples of various SNA Initiatives/Studies:

• Digital Promise SNA Toolkit (Accelerating Innovation in Education)

https://digitalpromise.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/SNA-Toolkit.pdf

• Social Network Analysis: Mapping Your Nonprofit's Connections

(3 Intermountain Impact Investments)

https://www.slideshare.net/escwa/social-network-analysis-mapping-your-nonprofits-connections

• SMR Foundation : How to read a Network map

https://www.smrfoundation.org/networks/how-to-read-a-network-map/

• International Network of Social Network Analysis

https://www.insna.org/

• Social Network Analysis: An Example of Fusion Between Quantitative and Qualitative Methods

(Reza Yousefi Nooraie,Joanna E.M.Sale,Alexandra Marin)

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1558689818804060

• MIXING METHODS IN SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS

(Gemma Edwards and Nick Crossley)

http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/methods-manchester/docs/SNA-using-qual-methods.pdf

• Population Health Methods ( Example from Health Industry)

https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/research/population-health-methods/social-network-analysis