Position Vacancy - Assistant Director, Straus Center for Young Children and Families
The Straus Center for Young Children and Families at Bank Street College of Education is seeking a dynamic, well-rounded researcher to assist in defining and operationalizing a Twenty-first Century progressive research agenda that builds on over a hundred years of practice-oriented research, teacher education, and children’s programs at Bank Street.
Building on this history of using observational research to inform practice, the Straus Center focuses on producing and disseminating new scholarship and research-based recommendations to help practitioners and policymakers affect meaningful change in the many settings where young children develop. The center employs a strategic, multipronged approach that explores the most effective ways to address key challenges in the field by:
- Employing a range of mixed-method research designs to both capture early childhood programming in action and better understand their effects on young children;
- Implementing a strengths-based approach to engage practitioners, children, parents/guardians, and community members in participatory, equity-focused research projects that incorporate their important perspectives and voices in practice improvement efforts;
- Recognizing and valuing children’s and families’ diversities as central to high-quality early care and education practices; and
- Effectively communicating research on approaches, models, and strategies that positively impact young children, their families, and their communities.
The assistant director will work closely with the center’s director, colleagues within the college, and community stakeholders. The assistant director’s salary is covered by the Straus Center endowment and will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.
Bank Street College of Education strongly encourages applications from individuals who are members of groups that have been, and still are, excluded from and/or underrepresented in academic and research settings. Core Responsibilities - Co-designing research projects
- Co-authoring funding proposals
- Coordinating with internal and external research project stakeholders
- Managing data collection and integrity procedures
- Collaboratively analyzing data
- Working collaboratively to disseminate research findings to a range of audiences (e.g., funders, scholars, practitioners, policy makers, lay people, etc.)
- Assisting with research syntheses and developing translational documents for this same audience range
- Other duties as needed (e.g., assisting in the recruitment, training, and supervision of student research assistants)
Required Qualifications - Masters degree, with at least two years of research experience, from an accredited research-intensive university in early childhood education, education policy, sociology of education, educational psychology, community psychology, social work, or a related field
- Strong methodological (i.e. both theoretical and technical) background in inferential statistics and understanding of the interplay between so-called quantitative and qualitative methods
- Facility with one or more statistical packages (e.g., SPSS, Stata, SAS, R, etc.)
- Strong project management (e.g., budgeting, tracking timelines, coordinating with internal and external partners, etc.)
- Ability to exercise initiative to resolve complex, non-routine research-practice dilemmas
- Outstanding verbal and written communication skills
- Demonstrated record of scholarly habits of mind and activity in line with the position’s core responsibilities
Desired Qualifications - Doctoral degree from an accredited research university
- Experience with multilevel modeling
- Bi- or multi-lingual proficiency
- Familiarity with the body of theories commonly referred to as Critical Theory
- Working knowledge of other data analysis and research-relevant applications (e.g., NVivo, Dedoose, ArcGIS, Asana, Access, etc.)
- An articulated inter- or trans-disciplinary perspective
- Some experience teaching with adults and/or working with children, youth, families, and/or community groups
This is an exciting opportunity to be a part of building a new early childhood research center at one of the most prestigious teacher preparation institutions in the country. For more information about this position please contact Dr. Mark Nagasawa, Director of the Straus Center for Young Children & Families at mnagasawa@bankstreet.edu.
To apply please prepare and submit:
A cover letter addressing 1) your lenses as a researcher and 2) the relationship between your qualifications, experiences, and the position’s core responsibilities
Curriculum vitae
Names and contact information for references (letters will be requested only for finalists)
Strong applications will clearly demonstrate consideration of the Straus Center’s point-of-view and its role within the college.
Important Information about Bank Street College of Education
Bank Street College was founded in 1916 as the Bureau of Educational Experiments (BEE) by Lucy Sprague Mitchell, Harriet Johnson, and Wesley Mitchell. In keeping with the emerging child study movement of the time, and the broader aims of the “Progressive Era,” the BEE’s purpose was to conduct applied research to learn about what environments and practices promote children’s learning and development - as a social good - and to educate teachers based upon this research. In 1950 the Bureau of Educational Experiments was renamed Bank Street College of Education when the Board of Regents of New York State granted accreditation to confer the Master of Science degree.
The college’s academic programs now include children’s programs (infants through eighth grade); professional development with school districts and community-based organizations; teacher education (e.g., infancy and early intervention; dual certification in general-special education; dual language/bilingual education; teaching of English to speakers of other languages; museum education); educational leadership, and child life (professionals who work in medical settings to mitigate children’s experience of medical trauma). All of these endeavors, including the Straus Center’s work, are guided by the college’s mission.
Mission
The mission of Bank Street College is to improve the education of children and their teachers by applying to the education process all available knowledge about learning and growth and by connecting teaching and learning meaningfully to the outside world. In so doing, we seek to strengthen not only individuals, but the community as well, including family, school, and the larger society in which adults and children, in all their diversity, interact and learn. We see in education the opportunity to build a better society. |
