Wikimedia 2021-2022 South Africa Education Fellowship

Are you studying towards a postgraduate degree (honours, Masters or Doctoral?) or diploma? The Wikimedia Foundation’s Education team works with the education sector and a global community of volunteers to ensure that free knowledge projects like Wikipedia make a meaningful impact on global education goals. We are building a world where knowledge is available and equitable for everyone, and people have the skills and information they need to thrive in the digital age.

Purpose of this fellowship

To provide a professional experience for exceptional graduate students interested in the fields of education, technology, and development that will mutually benefit the student’s professional learning and contribute to furthering the work of the Education team at the Wikimedia Foundation.

You can learn more about the experience of our previous fellows here.

Time commitment

October 2021-June 2022 36 weeks 20 hrs/week

Benefits

This is a paid Fellowship. The Fellow will be hired as a contractor for the duration of the fellowship at $30/hr or the equivalent in local currency. 

The student may also be able to arrange for course credit for their work. Upon completion of the fellowship, the fellow will be provided with a letter of reference outlining their deliverables and outcomes.

Deliverables

The fellowship manager will work together with the fellow and their academic advisor to determine the scope of work based on the student’s interest and the current projects that the education team has prioritized. Current projects and research needs include:

• Wikimedia in global Higher Education 
• Positive youth engagement 
• Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom/ Media and Information Literacy 
• Wikidata for Education / curriculum digitization & machine learning  

Deliverables will correlate with the learning outcomes outlined in the below section.

Learning Outcomes

• The student will be able to explain the mission of the Wikimedia Foundation and how the work of the education team supports the Wikimedia movement’s strategy while contributing to global education goals through grassroots community engagement and strategic projects and partnerships.
• The student will be able to navigate working with a global volunteer movement aimed at ensuring free access to the world’s knowledge and will be able to employ tested strategies to support online communities with offline programmatic work.
• The student will develop a deep understanding of 21st century skills, and will be able to articulate how reading and editing Wikipedia supports the development of those skills. 
• The student will develop their ability to manage time effectively in a non-structured work environment while collaborating with a globally distributed team.

Qualifications:

• Graduate student focusing on comparative education, education & technology, or similar fields of study 
• Fluent in at least one language other than English
• Experience working in a diversity of cultural contexts 
• Experience working in educational institutions
• Experience contributing to Wikimedia projects highly desired

How to apply: 

• CLICK HERE to go to the online application form and fill out all required information
• Attach an expression of interest that answers the following questions:
• • In your opinion, how does the Wikimedia movement contribute to the sustainable development goal for education (SDG4)? 
  • How will this fellowship help you further your academic and career goals? 
  • What excites you about working with the Wikimedia Foundation’s Education team?
  • Please note we will require a letter of recommendation from a professor in the later stages of the process.

Closing date: Friday, August 20, 2021

More about the team 

Who we are

• We are multilingual
• We value Open Knowledge
• We are visionaries
• We are global citizens
• We are collaborative remote workers

What’s special about us 

• We’re distributed across several continents. We all come from different countries. 
• Among the team members we can have conversations in Spanish, Odia, French, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia, English
• We have lived and worked in 12 different countries, mostly in the Global South (and traveled to many many more!)
• We have diverse and interesting hobbies (reading, surfing, ukulele, guitar, coin collecting)
• Despite our ages, we all have a youthful energy

We value inclusion

• We require any formal partners to ensure there is gender equity among project participants as well as among staff and volunteers.
• We foster leadership among the Wikimedia & education community that is representative of the diversity of the movement & the world.
• We support partners to reduce barriers to participation for underrepresented groups.
• We prioritize efforts that reduce knowledge gaps on Wikimedia projects.
• We ensure differently abled people are able to access and use any materials we produce, and are able to participate in any activities we sponsor.
• We incentivize translation of the materials we produce to ensure that information is accessible in all UN languages, in addition to as many other languages as possible.
• We ensure there are multiple touch points for people to receive support in different regions and languages.