Innovations for Youth (i4Y), at UC Berkeley, has an immediate opening for a postdoctoral scholar. Your primary responsibilities will be intellectual and highly-skilled contributions to the center's ongoing projects, with a focus on promoting the wellbeing of young people by building infrastructure for effective prevention practice in schools. This position will focus on synthesis and generation of practice-relevant knowledge related to the systemic implementation of Transformative Social and Emotional Learning (T-SEL), with an emphasis on the use of research evidence (URE) for continuous improvement. You will contribute to a variety of community-engaged projects, in accordance to interest and skills, that address broad questions such as: a) How can we create schools as centers of wellness? b) What are the current strengths, needs, goals, and strategies of T-SEL in California, c) How can we catalyze capacity within the education workforce to continuously improve the delivery of T-SEL, d) How can assessment systems help mainstream T-SEL and facilitate SEL delivery worldwide? e) How can we measure, at scale, the extent to which educators incorporate research evidence from websites in their practice and policy decisions? Your primary mentorship will come from Professor Valerie Shapiro. Successful postdoctoral scholars may come from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds (e.g., psychology, education, public health, social work) and use a variety of research methods. You will join a collaborative group of early-career scholars applying rigorous research methods to projects in service of the public good. Remote work negotiable. Please communicate your interest in this full-time position (expected start-date on or before July 1, 2022), by submitting your cover letter, CV, and the names of 3 academic references to Marieka Schotland at i4y@berkeley.edu. Consideration will be given on a rolling basis until the position is filled (target: April 22, 2022).
As a postdoctoral scholar, you will be expected to 1) synthesize theories and knowledge to inform research questions, study design, measurement tools, and analytic procedures, 2) analyze existing and emerging data to co-author scholarly publications, and 3) contribute to and learn from improvement networks that seek to enact research evidence in policy and practice. Co-constructed duties are likely to include: engagement in research-practice partnerships, paper and proposal writing, protocol design, IRB submission, oversight of data collection and cleaning processes, analyses of quantitative and qualitative data, summarizing and interpreting research findings, research administration support, and contributing to regular research and professional development meetings with colleagues, mentees, and collaborators.
The center will provide for regular meetings with project principal investigators and access to software required for the completion of assigned tasks. The center will facilitate collaborative opportunities with the Greater Good Science Center, The Center for Implementation, and the Coalition for the Promotion of Behavioral Health, and provide methodological consultation through campus resources (e.g., dLab, xLab, Ethnographic Cafe). The center will also facilitate connections to UC Berkeley initiatives related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, as well as professional development opportunities intended to promote anti-racist scholarship, productivity, and personal well-being. Information about salary and benefits can be explored with the Visiting Scholars and Postdoctoral Affairs (VSPA) office.
In expressing your interest, please highlight your experiences publishing, working in K-12 education, conducting applied/partnered research, providing research supervision, and your methodological expertise (e.g., survey design, thematic coding, multilevel structural equation models, ethnography, big data analysis), as well as your ideal start date, working conditions, and training goals. This position requires that all degree requirements (for a Ph.D. in Psychology, Education, Public Health, Social Work, or a related field) be completed prior to start date. The University of California is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age or protected veteran status. For the complete UC nondiscrimination and affirmative action policy see: http://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4000376/NondiscrimAffirmAct.