American Sign Language Instructor Consultant

About the Position

USAID’s Center for Education (EDU) is hiring a consultant to teach introductory American Sign Language (ASL) to its staff in weekly, 1-hour synchronous hybrid or online sessions. Course content should include vocabulary relevant to EDU technical areas (listed below), in addition to common aspects of any introductory ASL class (i.e. greetings, introducing oneself, deaf culture, etc.) The consultant will be hired to develop course materials, teach the hybrid/online course, and provide follow up coaching to staff members either individually or in small groups. USAID will provide a list of invitees to take the course and introduce the course availability to staff. The consultant will be responsible for managing the online platform (i.e. Zoom, Google Meets) and sending calendar invitations to course participants.

The consultant has the ability to teach a hybrid course in person or remotely once per week in Washington, DC and work on all preparation and follow up remotely for a period from October 21, 2024 through June 13, 2025. The anticipated level of effort will be 65 hours, but the total hours may be flexible based on EDU’s needs.

Responsibilities

The consultant is responsible for ensuring that upon the conclusion of the course, EDU staff are able to:

• Introduce themselves in ASL (name, hometown, where they live, work, etc.) 
• Talk about their work using ASL lexicon relevant to USAID/EDU, including but not limited to:
  • U.S. Agency for International Development
  • International Development, and the International Education Sector
  • Universal Design for Learning
  • Youth in the Education Sector
  • Education in Conflict and Crisis
  • Education Finance
  • Education Systems Strengthening
  • Budget, Legislative Affairs, Knowledge Management, and Communications
• Fingerspell the alphabet
• Understand basic signs and fingerspelling

As such, the consultant’s duties are the following:

• Design the course, course materials, and supplementary learning resources.
• Conduct pre-course planning meetings with USAID.
• 1 hour weekly in-person classes for staff with a virtual component.
• 30-min weekly online ASL office hours for individuals/small groups to receive coaching.
• Conduct post-course closeout meeting with USAID.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and 3 years of relevant experience or Master’s degree and 1 year of relevant experience. 
• Fluent in American Sign Language (ASL). 
• 1 year of experience developing and delivering ASL instructional content to adult learners. Note that candidates may be asked to submit sample lesson plans as part of the screening process. 
• Demonstrated experience teaching introductory ASL to hearing adults with no prior background in ASL or Deaf Culture.  
• Ideally, the consultant is a deaf, native user of the language.