Trainer in Early Childhood Deaf Education Using A Sign Language

Project:     Intergeneration Deaf Education Outreach
Title: Trainer in Early Childhood Deaf Education Using A Sign Language
Location: Hanoi-base with travel to project sites
Report to: Project Manager

Introduction
The Intergenerational Deaf Education Outreach Project is implemented by World Concern Development Organization in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) through four years (July 2011 – June 2015) in the four provinces of Hanoi, Thai Nguyen, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City. The overall objectives of the project is to assist young deaf children to integrate into mainstream society, by piloting an innovative joint family and institution-based delivery system comprising screening, family support, and preschool services.
The project is funded by Japanese Social Development Fund (JSDF Grant No. TF099058), a trust fund managed by the World Bank (WB). The total grant is USD 2,798,270.

The project aims to assist young deaf children to integrate into mainstream society, according to each child’s visual and/or auditory learning capacities, by piloting an innovative joint family and institution-based delivery system comprising screening, family support, language instruction, and preschool services aimed at school-readiness.
The project has five components:
(1) Demonstrating (joint family-institution pre-school education for deaf children, and
essential knowledge base)
(2) Developing professional human resources for pre-school deaf education
(3) Building capacity and partnerships for the deaf communities and raising awareness for general public
(4) Monitoring and evaluation
(5) Project management

Job Summary:
The Trainer in Early Childhood Deaf Education international consultant will be principally involved with Component 2: Developing Professional Human Resources for Pre-school Deaf Education. This component aims to prepare deaf adults to become family educators, hearing signing people to facilitate communication between hearing and deaf people in family and school settings, and hearing teachers of deaf children to assess and accommodate student language needs so that together they can provide effective preschool readiness services for deaf children and their families. The consultant will provide knowledge in theory of deaf early childhood development and enable trainee’s skill development in family-centered learning activities for young deaf children as appropriate to the Vietnamese context. Trainees’ will form Family Support Teams (FST) wherein each member is able to effectively contribute respective knowledge and methods toward a collaborative working partnership in service of child, family, and school; this part of component 1 of the project. The training logic therefore aims to create interdependencies between FST trainees through all formal training and related activities.

Responsibilities, outputs and timeline

Under this assignment, the Consultant will:
1. Develop curriculum and instructional materials for training Family Mentor (FM);
2. Lead four, two week-long training sessions consisting of 8 courses in total which include lecture on theory and practice of play-based early education for deaf children, observations of family activities, and supervise instruction for young deaf children during visits to homes in rural areas.
3. Coordinate Family Mentor course sessions with the international deaf educator trainer to insure parallel training on core concepts and terminology relevant to such areas as child development, language acquisition, family communication methods, et cetera;
4. Conduct video-conferencing and electronic communication with FM trainees between each training session to answer questions and augment skill development;
5. Participate in meetings with the Chief Technical Advisor and national teacher trainers to promote continuity between national and international curricula;
6. Provide updates and progress reports to the Technical Working Group on Component 2: Developing Professional Human Resources for Pre-school Deaf Education;
7. Evaluate the efficacy of the curriculum used in the workshop, using first-hand observation, interviews, focus groups, and written feedback by participants.  Assist in revising curriculum and courses, including preliminary steps to adapt the course in neighboring countries.
8. Participate in kick-off and demonstration days to promote collaboration between IDEO project partners and stakeholders;

Qualifications and experience
- At minimum, a master’s degree in Deaf Education with a specialization in Family Centered Early Education.
- Substantial experience in university-level teaching related to child development;
- Substantial international experience in early deaf childhood education, preferably in developing countries. Preference to applicants with experience in Southeast Asia;
- Substantial international involvement with engaging Deaf communities in educational settings, preferably in developing countries;
- Substantial first-hand experience of teaching and administering early childhood education programs;
- Demonstrated capacity to organize and manage community-based consultation processes (e.g. workshops, focus groups, town-hall meetings, et cetera);
- Demonstrated capacity to work effectively in a team, to manage a range of tasks, to work pro-actively and with diligence, and to manage resources effectively while meeting deadlines;
- Excellent report writing skills in English and at least one sign language. Ready ability to pick up new sign languages and to use international gestures and signs;
- Strong computer skills in word processing and communication.

Assignment modalities and duration

The International Consultant will carry out this assignment in association with national consultants and local trainers (who will be hired separately by WCDO). The International Consultant will be the senior member of the team and will have overall responsibility for: (i) the preparation of the curriculum, (ii) the delivery of the training, and (iii) briefings and final report.

It is expected that the International Consultant will work in split missions with time and payment to be negotiated.

The Consultant will be responsible for: (i) arranging his/her own travel within the approved budget; (ii) following agreed timelines; and (iii) producing the agreed written materials in timely manner.
Estimated start: August 2011
Interested candidates are requested to send a letter of application and their CV with details of qualifications, experience and references via email to: [email protected]
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted. 

Deadline for Applications: 10 Aug 2011

Job Details
Organisation Name: 
World Concern Vietnam
Location: 
Ha Noi
Application Deadline: 
Wed, 2011-08-10