Non-Staff ED Consultant for Digital Citizenship

OVERVIEW

Parent Sector : Education Sector (ED)

Duty Station:  Remote

Standard Duration of Assignement : 4 months

Job Family: Education

Type of contract : Non Staff

Duration of contract : From 1 to 6 months

Recruitment open to : Internal and external candidates

Application Deadline (Midnight Paris Time) : 23-OCT-2024

UNESCO Core Values: Commitment to the Organization, Integrity, Respect for Diversity, Professionalism

OVERVIEW OF THE FUNCTIONS OF THE POST

IMPORTANT: APPLICATION PROCEDURES

In place of the Employment History Form, please upload required documents. The whole package needs to be uploaded as a single PDF document (CV, Technical and financial proposal):

1. an updated curriculum vitae
2. a cover letter explaining how your profile and experience meet our mandatory requirements.
3. a technical proposal including an approach and methodology for the assignment (1-2 pages)
4. a financial proposal: The amount to be charged for the assignment, which should be quoted in US dollars as a monthly fee.

Long Description

The position will be carried out remotely. The expected start date of the contract is on 30 November 2024.

Please submit your supporting documents in English.

UNESCO places great emphasis on ensuring that the objectives of the work assignment, as described in the Terms of Reference, are met. Accordingly, in evaluating the proposals for the assignment, attention will focus first and foremost on the technical elements. From those proposals deemed suitable in relation to the criteria set forth in the Terms of Reference, UNESCO shall select the proposal that offers the Organization best value for money.

Only complete applications will be considered.

By submitting your application for this vacancy, you consent to the inclusion of your profile in our consultant roster, and you may be contacted in the future for similar types of tasks or opportunities. If you prefer not to be included in the roster, please indicate in your application.

UNESCO is inviting written proposals from Individuals for the work assignment described in Annex A.

Long Description

ANNEX A

1. BACKGROUND

The work of the section of Global Citizenship and Peace Education focuses on improving the relevance of education systems and addressing global challenges to peace, justice, human rights and democracy through education, with an approach that is holistic, gender- transformative, culturally sensitive, and human rights-based, central to fostering creative and sustainable societies.

The digital revolution has transformed many of these challenges, having fundamentally reshaped how individuals interact with one another and with their environments. This transformation has ushered in a multitude of opportunities, fostering economic, social, and geographical mobility, partially through the expansion of access to information and education. However, the expansion in access and opportunities has been far from homogeneous – it has also exacerbated pre-existing inequalities and fueled a surge in new forms of violence, bullying and discrimination through the proliferation of misinformation, disinformation, conspiracy myths, and hate speech.

Long Description

This relentless transformation is one of the evolving realities that prompted the International Commission on the Futures of Education to call for a thorough reimagination of education, in order to ensure that it fulfils its role of empowering learners to become active actors for social transformation towards peaceful, inclusive and sustainable futures, in line with the   UNESCO Recommendation on Education for Peace, Human Rights and Sustainable Development. 

This transformed education, especially global citizenship (GCED), including media and information literacy (MIL), should equip individuals, especially youth, with the necessary skills and competencies to be and become active global citizens, critically engage with, co-create, use and share information and knowledge on and through diverse digital technologies, in particular social media platforms. Since the unfolding digital revolution poses dilemmas of being and belonging in the digital ecosystem, education should also comprise the broader set of skills and competencies necessary to freely exercise their right to information and freedom of expression to leverage the full potential of all digital technologies, including AI, to connect with others and to build digital networks and communities of action for social transformation. Concomitantly, this also entails addressing structural barriers to information access and freedom of expression.

In that respect, the new challenges of the information ecosystem have prompted UNESCO to develop groundbreaking guidelines to safeguard peace and human rights, and particularly freedom of expression and the right to access to information while dealing with misinformation and hate speech, on digital platforms. These guidelines outline the need for digital platforms to establish processes and systems that asses and mitigate human rights risks including greater transparency of platforms and their financing, with better risk assessment; they also outline the need for an independent of governance system of digital spaces; and the promotion of critical thinking and user empowerment through media and information literacy.

Accordingly, understanding the interconnectedness between the various elements of the digital world/environment, education/GCED, the right to information and freedom of expression, MIL, and UNESCO’s broad mandate for peace, and to adequately encompass the intersection between technology, global issues of violence and discrimination, including threats to freedom of expression, and transforming education for peace, requires a comprehensive review and (if necessary) broadening of it’s existing conceptual frameworks. This integration entails unpacking the digital from both the competency, issue and also safety dimensions. For example, it entails asking:

• What exactly the digital world/environment is, contrasting but not limiting it with the restrictions of the physical (what does it mean to conceptualize the digital as an interconnected ecology?)
• What does belonging or citizenship (local and global) look like in these digital ecologies? How do these transform the civic engagement practices and spaces available to individuals and organizations?
• What are the impacts (both threats and opportunities) of the digital world on the right to information and freedom of expression? How do we ensure that these rights and freedoms are transformative component of collective efforts to build long-lasting peace in the digital era?
• What are some of the safety or concerns of rights (restrictions or attacks to freedom of expression, disinformation and misinformation, forms of intolerance, discrimination, such as racism, xenophobia or antisemitism, and other forms of violence based on gender, sex, age….) that inhabitants face in these digital ecologies?

• What are the necessary skills or competencies that learners require to not only thrive but actively build long-lasting peace in these digital ecologies? How are these skills or competencies related or different, and how should they be inculcated? How do these skills or competencies map to issues impeding peace in these digital ecologies, for example, hate speech?
  • Beyond formal education actors and institutions, which new stakeholders should be involved in providing citizens with these skills? What is the role of digital product providers in regards to providing learning opportunities in and through digital spaces, and to ensuring that they contribute to building peace?
• What ought to be the overall guiding principles?

Answering such questions comprehensively will provide both clarity for UNESCO internal programming, reinforce intersectoral work and coordination, and most importantly, ensure that the best guidance is provided to the Member States.

2.  OBJECTIVES

Under the overall supervision of the Chief of the Section of Global Citizenship and Peace Education, and in close coordination with other relevant members of the team and with the Communication and Information Sector, and Social and Human Sciences Sector, the contract holder will undertake a comprehensive literature review and based on the review, develop jointly with the team, the position paper tentatively titled “UNESCO’s Position Paper on Unpacking the Digital in the context of education, freedom of expression and Global Citizenship, and towards building long-lasting peace”.

3.  TASKS

The Consultant’s tasks will consist of:

1.  Conducting a thorough, two fold literature review on 1) how the digital is conceptualized in the academia, especially in relation to education, Global Citizenship, freedom of expression, and towards building and peace and 2) how the digital is conceptualized and operationalized in UNESCO (digital learning, digital skills, digital competencies, digital citizenship, media and information literacy, digital citizenship, ICT and other relevant digital education resources – especially in the context of addressing global issues and building peace);

2.  Based on this thorough review, and working closely and iteratively with relevant UNESCO programme specialists, draft a UNESCO’s Position Paper on Unpacking the Digital in the context of education, freedom of expression and Global Citizenship, and towards building long-lasting peace that comprehensively weaves together these issues, expanding upon the connections, similarities and differences among the existing frameworks/approaches, offering concrete conceptual solutions/guidance to allow for scoping and effective UNESCO programming in this area;

3.   Throughout the process, integrate feedback both from UNESCO teams and also independent experts towards ensuring that the position paper is up to current scientific and UNESCO standards.  

Specifically, the consultant will be responsible for the following tasks/duties during the four-month contract. These are provided as an indication of the workload, and to enable applicants to provide an accurate monthly cost proposal:

• A comprehensive concept note, outlining notably a table of contents of the Position Paper and the methodology of the literature review (5 pages; 320 words/page)
• Findings of the comprehensive literature review and the zero draft of the proposed position paper. (5 pages; 320 words/page)
• 1st draft of UNESCO’s Position Paper  (15 pages; 320 words/page)
• 2nd draft of UNESCO’s Position Paper  (15 pages; 320 words/page)

COMPETENCIES (Core / Managerial)

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REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education 

• Advanced university degree (equivalent to Masters) in in the field of Social or Human Sciences, Education, Political Science, Educational Technologies, Computer Science, Engineering or related fields.

Work experience

• At least 2 years of relevant professional research experience in the field of research on education and ICTs.

Required skills/Competencies

• Excellent research, analysis and writing skills.
• Excellent knowledge of issues such as digital citizenship, media and information literacy, Internet regulation and freedom of expression, and human rights education;
• Good knowledge of UNESCO’s and other International Organizations’ work and perspectives regarding Transformative Education and pedagogies, and education for peace;
• Good knowledge of digital education and EDTech initiatives, theories and debates, including the main digital competences frameworks;

• Good knowledge of the current ICTs ecosystem, including providers and other stakeholders, regulations, and policies;
• Proven experience and ability to compile, analyze and synthetize large volumes of sources and information;
• Ability to work independently, often within tight timelines, to meet strict deadlines;
• Ability to work collaboratively, incorporating inputs and suggestions from a diversity of perspectives;
• Experience working in an international, multi-cultural environment

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS

• Good knowledge of human rights based Digital Transformation, Digital Education and Sociology of Technology,  trends and debates;
• Ability to critically engage with established debates and paradigms and to propose innovative solutions beyond them;
• Knowledge of key relevant authors, experts and stakeholders related to the field of Educational Technology, MIL, ICTs, Digital Citizenship, and related areas;
• Very good organizational skills.

Languages

Fluency in writing and communicating in English required.

APPLICATION PROCESS

SELECTION AND RECRUITMENT PROCESS

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