National Consultant: School Leadership Analysis, Jakarta, Indonesia, 5 months, home based (for Indonesians only)

Indonesia’s Partnership Compact was published on GPE’s website on July 2024, after a participatory development process led by the Mitra Pendidikan Indonesia (MPI)/Local Education Group (LEG), co-chaired by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) and Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA). Based on an Enabling Factor Analysis (EFA) conducted in 2024, Indonesia’s Partnership Compact is focusing on four focus areas for support and capacity building for system transformation through GPE. The four focus areas include: (A) teaching practices and educational leadership; (B) learning environment, (C) support for special needs and disadvantaged groups, and (D) governance and coordination. UNICEF, in its role as SCG Grant Agent, is responsible for facilitating an agreed work plan of activities structured around the enabling factors and the four focus areas. In support of Indonesia’s Partnership Compact Focus Area A: teaching practices and educational leadership, research will be undertaken to analyse the barriers and enabling factors for gender equality in school leadership positions in the country, as a means to strengthen gender-responsive pedagogy, learning environments and student learning outcomes. The purpose of the national consultancy is to support an analysis of barriers and interventions for female leaders and female candidates for promotion to and undertaking school and madrasah leadership positions in MoPSE and MoRA schools in Indonesia. The assignment will generate evidence to inform national and subnational strategies that foster more equitable, inclusive and effective education leadership structures.

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For every child, Education 

Global Partnership for Education (GPE) brings together developing countries, donors, international organizations, the private sector, and other relevant stakeholders to transform the education system to ensure all children, especially those who are marginalized, have access to quality education. Key approaches in GPE’s support to education system transformation is through systems capacity strengthening, implementation of key priority programme interventions, knowledge and innovation sharing, and promoting sector collaboration.

GPE has approved a total of USD29.7 million in financing for Indonesia, to support the implementation of Indonesia’s Partnership Compact. UNICEF Indonesia has been appointed grant agent for USD4.7 million of this financing, as part of a System Capacity Grant (SCG) Part 1 and 2.

Indonesia’s Partnership Compact was published on GPE’s website on July 2024, after a participatory development process led by the Mitra Pendidikan Indonesia (MPI)/Local Education Group (LEG), co-chaired by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) and Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA). Based on an Enabling Factor Analysis (EFA) conducted in 2024, Indonesia’s Partnership Compact is focusing on four focus areas for support and capacity building for system transformation through GPE. The four focus areas include: (A) teaching practices and educational leadership; (B) learning environment, (C) support for special needs and disadvantaged groups, and (D) governance and coordination.

UNICEF, in its role as SCG Grant Agent, is responsible for facilitating an agreed work plan of activities structured around the enabling factors and the four focus areas. In support of Indonesia’s Partnership Compact Focus Area A: teaching practices and educational leadership, research will be undertaken to analyse the barriers and enabling factors for gender equality in school leadership positions in the country, as a means to strengthen gender-responsive pedagogy, learning environments and student learning outcomes.

The purpose of the national consultancy is to support an analysis of barriers and interventions for female leaders and female candidates for promotion to and undertaking school and madrasah leadership positions in MoPSE and MoRA schools in Indonesia. The assignment will generate evidence to inform national and subnational strategies that foster more equitable, inclusive and effective education leadership structures.

Research Objectives:
• To examine the policy environment ecosystem that influences effective and equitable school leadership roles, for both females and males. This will include recruitment/selection/deployment; role/accountability definitions; professional development and career paths, and incentives.
• To examine lessons from programmatic interventions at national and subnational levels that could strengthen ongoing or new professional development/leadership programmes to better enable women to prepare for, and undertake, school leadership positions.
• To examine opportunities to expand existing and/or new school and madrasah leadership programmes beyond a focus on developing pedagogical skills to developing broader skills in promoting schools as learning ecosystems (such as leading inclusive, equitable and participatory school environments).
• To identify the barriers and opportunities to address and transform prevailing gender norms and biases amongst educators, school communities and decisionmakers that hinder women’s advancement to and in school leadership roles (e.g. examining male teachers’ preferences for male leadership, leadership associations with masculinity ). This includes understanding of how expectations around domestic and care work interact with workloads and time demands in school and madrasah leadership, as well as attitudes amongst educators, school and madrasah communities and policymakers.
• To develop recommendations to improve the ecosystem of support for effective school and madrasah leadership to inform policy and programme interventions, including promoting equitable roles for both female and male school and madrasah leaders.

The national consultant will work closely with UNICEF and MPI/LEG members, especially with a Research Advisory Group, to be established to provide strategic and technical guidance on the research process, including:
• To provide guidance/technical inputs on the research design, including sampling and location selection respondents/informants, and the main research questions.
• To provide guidance/technical input on the research process and protocol.
• To provide feedback on research findings and recommendations including strategies for policy advocacy and implementation support.

Throughout the research process, the national consultant will work with an international consultant. The national consultant will lead the work in-country, responsible for the (1) research implementation design, data collection, compilation, and the preliminary analysis; (2) consultative analysis by preparing, coordinating and conducting consultations and meetings with relevant education partners and stakeholders in Indonesia; and (3) drafting discussion papers and contributing to the final draft research report. The international consultant will provide (1) technical guidance on the overall research framework; (2) inputs during consultations of global experience and trends that are relevant to Indonesia; (3) in-depth analysis of the data compiled and analysed by the national consultant; and (4) draft the full research report and policy paper, with inputs from the national consultant.

How can you make a difference? 

The overall research process will cover the following elements under the responsibility of the national consultant:
1. Desk review of (i) relevant policies on the school and madrasah leadership system in Indonesia and documentation of previous reviews or analysis identifying issues and bottlenecks on effective school leadership roles, including the role of women school leaders. Desk review of (ii) programmatic interventions (in the recent past and those ongoing) on promoting effective school leadership. This will include an analysis of evidence-based interventions that have successfully supported women’s advancement into school/madrasah leadership positions, as well as successful strategies that have challenged gender norms and promoted acceptance of women leadership within school and madrasah communities.
2. Develop a detailed implementation plan with the guidance of the international consultant who will develop the overall research framework. Lead the consultative analysis using mixed research methods (qualitative and quantitative), including focus group discussions, surveys and interviews, as well as drawing on national data sources, such as Rapor Pendidikan, AKMI, etc., along with a review of policies and programmes under both MoPSE and MoRA. The research scope would include a focus on in-service leadership programmes and related policies under both MoPSE and MoRA, as well as a supplementary analysis on pre-service (such as Education Personnel Education Institutions (Lembaga Pendidikan Tenaga Kependidikan – LPTKs) enabling an analysis of alignment between these two training programmes with the intension to promote a seamless leadership development pipeline.
3. Prepare at least two case studies of successful female leadership programmes in Indonesia, highlighting enabling factors, barriers and transferable strategies for replication and scaling up, with technical guidance from the international consultant.
4. Preparation of an analytical report and action-oriented policy paper, as well as policy recommendations for promoting female leadership in schools and madrasah. These need to contain evidence-based recommendations to strengthen the design and delivery of school leadership development pathways that actively promote gender equity.
5. Dissemination of key findings to key decision makers and MPI/LEG members, through relevant events (such as a workshop) involving national and subnational stakeholders.

The national consultant will work with UNICEF Indonesia’s Education Specialist and the Education Officer assigned to lead this research activity, under the overall guidance of UNICEF Indonesia’s Chief of Education. The UNICEF education staff will support the national consultant in organizing meetings and consultations, including logistical arrangements for online, offline and hybrid activities.

Please refer to the Term of Reference attached for the detailed tasks and deliverables.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have… 

- Minimum of a master’s degree* in one of the following fields is required: gender, education or international development with specialization in gender and/or education.
- At least 5 years of relevant experience in school/madrasah leadership, gender and/or education sector research.
- Experience working with government or non-government organizations on education management policy development, school leadership competency analysis and training design, and/or women empowerment related programmes in social sector.
- Experience in facilitating consultations of key education stakeholders and data gathering and analysis for social sectors.
- Familiarity of GPE programmes is an advantage but not required.
- Strong knowledge of gender and/or education, with specific focus on gender equitable school leadership or teacher and education personnel management.
- Strong knowledge on the ecosystem of school/madrasah leadership development at policy and implementation levels.
- Strong analytical and conceptual thinking for the social sector.
- Excellent writing, communication and presentation skills with high to middle level policy stakeholders.
- Good data collection and analytical skills.
- Good facilitation skills for structured group work and activities.
- Ability to work under pressure and commitment to work to tight timeframe.
- Fluency in both written and spoken Bahasa Indonesia and English.

(* A first level university degree (Bachelor's) in a relevant technical field (as identified above), in conjunction with seven (7) years of relevant work experience may be considered in lieu of an advanced university degree

If you are a committed, creative professional and are passionate about children’s rights and making a lasting difference on children’s lives, one of the global leading entities on children’s rights would like to hear from you.

 TOR Natl Consultant School Leadership for TMS.pdf

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, Sustainability (CRITAS), and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

UNICEF is also proud of a diverse workforce who are profoundly committed to supporting the full realization of children’s rights, and in uplifting a rights-based approach in all that we do.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships

(2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness

(3) Drive to achieve results for impact

(4) Innovates and embraces change

(5) Manages ambiguity and complexity

(6) Thinks and acts strategically

(7) Works collaboratively with others 

UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does and is mandated to support the realization of the rights of every child, including those most disadvantaged, and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, minority, or any other status.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. 

All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check, and selected candidates with disabilities may be requested to submit supporting documentation in relation to their disability confidentially.

Remarks:  

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process. 

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws. 

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.