Research Consultant: Refugee Language Mapping Survey

About the project

Uganda is facing one of the largest refugee influxes in recent years, with almost 1.3 million refugees registered by June 2017 and many more are expected. The response from the Government of Uganda has been exemplary in terms of the freedoms and support it grants refugees; nevertheless, given the scale of the influx, services are stretched to breaking point across all sectors. 

In the education sector a range of government, development partners and non-governmental organisations have come together to establish a Task Team, chaired by the Ministry of Education & Sports, UNHCR and UNICEF, to develop a Uganda Refugee and Host Community Education Response Strategy. In support of this and to inform the refugee education strategy in the coming months and years to come, the British Council is proposing to undertake a language mapping survey in three refugee affected districts to better understand the language issues and barriers affecting teachers, students and communities in accessing education.  

The objectives of the survey are to gain a more nuanced understanding of the range and use of languages and the challenges to learning and teaching posed by multilingual classrooms in schools in refugee-affected districts. The study will look at the disparities between Language of Instruction (LOI) practices, materials and language policy; highlighting where the greatest disparities exist. In addition, it will look at the use and attitudes towards languages of teaching and learning in the wider community, amongst parents (host and refugee), head teachers, community leaders and district education officials. 

It will seek to establish an overview of training / degree of preparedness for classroom teaching educational qualifications held by existing teachers, as well as potential teachers amongst refugee communities and a cursory review of levels of English and local / vernacular language proficiency of teachers. It will also seek to give an indication of media access and use to inform future programming. 

About the role

The British Council is looking for a consultant to undertake the role of Researcher to support the Lead Researcher (LR) on the study. In consultation with the LR, the Researcher will be responsible for supporting:

• the design of survey tools 
• the training of enumerators in each focus district (Arua, Yumbe and Isingiro), piloting of tools and moderation of pilot results 
• data collection exercise across all three districts
• the LR draft report presented to the British Council; final report produced and disseminated to Task Team, education stakeholders and survey participants. 

Qualifications and experience required

Essential

• Minimum five years of education and research experience in East Africa
• Experience in English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) and minority language issues.

Desirable

• Knowledge of Uganda and the Ugandan education system
• Experience in Education in Emergencies (EiE) and refugee education.

If you are interested, please send your CV tailored to the above requirements to emma.gremley@britishcouncil.org with the title ‘Research Consultant: Refugee Language Mapping Survey in Uganda’.

Please note, we can only respond to successful applicants and only within 14 working days of the application deadline.