Educational Specialist

ABOUT NAFDA

nafda is a citizen-powered movement, which aims to spark change in the education system by empowering schools to lead bottom-up transformative change. We are on a mission to empower school leaders, educators, and other key education actors to implement and cement innovative participatory approaches to education.

We envision an equitable and inclusive student-centered education system that builds the engaged citizens of tomorrow, where schools have more autonomy to implement participatory local solutions that improve the school and impact its direct community.

Nafda is working with 20 schools to build a movement of change. Our projection for the future is to have 100 new schools in 2023 and 1000 by 2025. Learn about what we have been doing for the past year in this narrative: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W4bnlvzyTbzNXRJdWbHEGHthUf_h1c4zGFI… in this short ppt:  https://www.canva.com/design/DAFCQ4bAiRg/2RdpzTMIHxrHHUD_ymebZA/view?utm...

Job Overview

Nafda school teams are currently placed in 6 thematic labs which are School Based Curriculum Development (SBCD), STEM/STEAM, equitable learning, self expression, community service, students skills and financial sustainability. The selection of labs was based on a community visioning process each school conducted at the beginning of their nafda journey. Schools worked together to identify the overall vision of the lab which was driven by nafda’s core values of good governance, social justice, and citizenship. Each school is working on a 100 day project within 1 to 2 labs. Have a look at the labs’ vision and some of the 100-day projects: https://bit.ly/3mPFcfA . The schools will be supported by coalition members that will provide expert support to ensure success.

The role of the lab coordinator is to facilitate the transformational journey of the school teams within each lab towards success. The lab coordinator ensures seamless coordination between the school and the coalition partners who are building the school capacity and ensures that the projects are scalable and sustainable. 

Job Description

Coordination & Communication

• Coordinate bi-monthly meetings with all team coordinators and principals (separately) within a lab to follow up on progress, and ensure that collaboration between schools in the same labs.
• Communicate with the finance team to ensure proper financial disbursement to school teams based on the created action plan and agreed-upon timeline
• Brief Enablers and STJ team on progress within the labs when needed 
• Coordinate monthly teams with all teams within the same lab to share progress and reflections on the process
• Liaise between coalition members and school teams to optimize the level of collaboration according to school needs

Design & Documentation

• Ensure that the 100 day projects promote nafda’s core value throughout development and execution phases
• Help school teams strengthen their action plans based on clear guidelines agreed upon with the school transformation journey (STJ) team
• Conduct on-ground visits to schools to check 100 day projects’ progress and provide support where needed
• Ensure that school teams prepare proper budgets for their projects within their action plans based on nafda’s guidelines.
• Follow up on school documentation of the projects and ensure its thoroughness that will set-up the project for scale
• Ensure that the projects created are both scalable and sustainable 
• Ensure that pre 100 day and 100 day journals are filled by the school principal and team coordinator respectively, and prepare them to be added to the LMS
• Ensure the implementation of the  Knowledge Management strategy to build nafda’s institutional capacity 

Key Requirements:

• Holds an MA degree in education from a reputable university
• Previous experience in education development and school improvement programs
• Can move around Lebanon with their own car
• Excellent command of Arabic and English (Both spoken and written). French is a big plus
• Excellent computer skills (Google suite, Canva…)

Key Characteristics:

• Empathetic Curiosity
• A willingness to do the dirty work
• Soft management skills
• Exceptional  oral and written communication skills
• Passion for innovation in education
• Project management and coordination
• Priority management
• Leadership and management experience
• Ability to work independently and under pressure
• Flexible and creative; being able to offer a variety of solutions for a given problem
• Cooperative and diplomatic
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Strong organizational and team working skills

Languages:

Fluency in Arabic and English languages (written and Spoken), French is a plus