Website STIR Education

ABOUT STIR EDUCATION

We are an international NGO that is addressing the moral and economic imperative that every child, everywhere, should have a teacher who cultivates the joy of lifelong learning. At a practical level, that means we support governments to reignite intrinsic motivation in teachers and local officials, through teacher networks. Our vision is a world where teachers love teaching and children love learning. In our sixth full year of operations, we are working with 200,000 teachers and 6 million children across 70 districts in India and Uganda.

OUR MODEL

We achieve this through a five-year learning partnership with an education system, where we align all levels of the education system (officials, teachers and children) around the goal of increasing intrinsic motivation.

Practically, this means that teachers undergo monthly network meetings with about 20 to 30 local peers. Through these meetings they’re supported to develop their practice in areas ranging from effective questioning to creating warm but orderly classroom routines – all designed to create a more effective relationship between the teacher and child. In doing so they develop a sense of autonomy (the sense they can change things), mastery (sense of getting better as a professionals) and purpose (reconnecting emotionally with their peers and students) – the key drivers of intrinsic motivation.

District officials undergo a training and coaching programme that motivates and supports them to prioritise, run and monitor the teacher networks and a close partnership with the state or national government enables the government to align this intrinsic motivation approach within their priorities, structures and systems.

The approach is run by the government from day one and after about five years of partnering with an education system we hope to have embedded a culture of improvement at all levels for the system to continue to strengthen itself. We typically allocate one member of our own staff per district to train, energise and coach the district officials running the approach, and a small team at the national or state level.

OUR VALUES

How we approach our work is as important as what we do and our core values guide the way:

Humility – We don’t have all the answers upfront.

Ownership – We empower each other with high expectations & support.

Openness – We will listen, learn and improve, and lead through obstacles.

Purpose – We’re united by a shared vision we’ll build & achieve together.

THE OPPORTUNITY

An exciting national leadership opportunity has arisen in the Design and Programme Readiness (DPR) team in India. The Associate Head DPR India will be working closely with the country leadership team as well as state teams to lead the design of all our programmes for teachers and officials in Delhi, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and any new geography that the organisation expands to in India. The Associate Head will be responsible for ensuring a world-class standard in programme design and delivery of STiR’s programmes to both teachers and officials across India.

REPORTING, ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Reporting directly to the Global Associate Director for Design and Programme Readiness and based in either Delhi, Chennai or Bangalore, the Associate Head, DPR will support the design leads in each state to contextualise the programme while ensuring that the core principles and tenets of STiR’s programme are not compromised. The Associate Head, DPR-India will be part of the India leadership team and will contribute significantly to the India strategy work and organisational development. The person will be expected to travel frequently to our implementation geographies across India.

Design a world class programme offer for teachers and education officials that is grounded in the principles of intrinsic motivation and behaviour change

Work closely with the Global Associate Director of DPR and state DPR leads to ensure that the design of all of STiR’s programming across India (for teachers and government officials) is underpinned by both global design principles as well as local state level priorities
Work closely with the state DPR leads, state programme heads and key state education officials to ensure that the content of STiR’s programmes is grounded in clear, longer term visions for education in the state and STiR’s organisational strategy
Work closely with the Programme Implementation teams and Monitoring & Evaluation teams to ensure that the design of our programme across India is informed by carefully articulated learning questions, as well as ensuring there are clear processes in place in each state to ensure that programme design is informed by both quantitative as well as qualitative data insights and learning
Work closely with the India Country Director to ensure programme design is aligned with wider organizational priorities
Support state DPR leads to build strong and robust co- design processes with the government partners which contribute to programme sustainability in the system
Develop criteria/ pathways for systematic scaling & exit for each geography aligned to the sustainability approach
Ensure that there is increased buy-in and local ownership for the co- design processes in each geography, set up clear co-design processes in each geography and a clear transference of ownership plan
Ensure that the programme design & content is user centred and is developed keeping in mind the inequities that exists in geographies. E.g. blended approach to programme delivery, use of virtual/ digital resources etc.
Development and management of partnerships with key government and non-government actors to identify and meet key technical training requirements across India
Build deep knowledge and understanding of the education landscape across India and the states in which we work and explore collaborations with existing interventions or organisations in the system to draw alignment of our programme with state/ national priorities. E.g. collaborations with FLN interventions, SEL interventions etc.
Ensure that partnerships across India are developed in line with STiR’s values and wider organisational strategy
Deepening strategic understanding of how Intrinsic Motivation influences behaviour change in the system within both internal as well as external stakeholders
Document and share our learning from such collaborations at the state as well national level forums to support the larger policy and advocacy work in India
Support the “Regional Hub” work in India and develop a repository of resources that could be potentially used for servicing the prospective regional hub clients
Programme teams in each state are prepared to deliver with excellence and have developed the required skills to support programme implementation in states
Develop and strengthen key programme readiness skill offers for internal team members by delivering training sessions in collaboration with state DPR leads
Ensure robust processes are in place to accurately assess the capacity of team members to implement the program through regular field visits, internal team discussions and communication with key stakeholders
Ensuring robust processes are in place for identifying and bridging gaps between intended design and implementation
Work closely with the People team, ensuring that clear progression descriptors are in place for STiR programme team members that will enable the latter to continually improve towards excellence
Promote organisational development and team culture as a member of the India leadership team
Role model professionalism and integrity at all times and take ownership of your own development
Make sure that all the work you do and relationships you build are in the STiR spirit and in line with our values
Develop strong, purposeful and collaborative relationships with the State leads, Senior Programme Managers, and Monitoring & Evaluation teams, being proactive in ensuring regular sharing of learning
Establish regular, structured line management processes which are set up with the explicit purpose of empowering the state DPR leads to achieve agreed goals
Develop country level budgets for the DPR function
Model ‘Growth Mindset’ at all times- show that improvement is always possible and take responsibility for supporting the whole team to achieve its goals

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Strong identification with STiR values
Ability to quickly gain deep understanding of multiple education systems across India and how to navigate them
Strong project management skills and the ability to manage multiple, complex projects at once
Exceptional people manager, who combines sharp visioning and goal setting with a coaching- based approach to empowering their team
Exceptional communicator, who can distil complex concepts and ideas into simple prose and speech
Demonstrated interest in and understanding of latest research in effective pedagogy and behaviour change theories, design thinking and adult learning approaches
Demonstrated ability to build positive relationships and influence others, including senior officials
Strong attention to detail and ability to see things through to a very high standard
Excellent writing skills –able to write clearly and succinctly in both English and Hindi; additional knowledge of Kannada and/or Tamil a bonus
Ability to learn and adapt rapidly based on feedback and new information
Very strong ability to work across functions and collaborate effectively
Demonstrated ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment