Research Assistant IV

McMaster University; Hamilton; On-site; CAD 36,000 - 51,000; Full time

Job summary

McMaster University seeks a Research Assistant IV to support a national peer support project, focusing on literature reviews and focus groups. The RA will assist with data collection, coordination, and reporting, working closely with partners Peer Support Canada and PeerWorks Ontario, under the School of Social Work.

The role emphasizes assisting with project activities, admin support, and coordination, with opportunities to contribute to national standards and practice guidance.

Qualifications

• Completed a post-secondary degree.

Responsibilities

• Support literature review and focus groups for a national peer support project.
• Assist with administrative, communication, and coordination tasks.
• Contribute to data collection, analysis, and reporting as required.

Education

Post-secondary degree

Job description

Education Level Completed a relevant post-secondary degree.

Career Level Minimum of 12 months experience.

Hourly Rate $26-$37 per hour

Expected Start Date October 2026

Job Description

Research Assistant IV with a focus on supporting a literature review and focus groups

Project Description

Dr. Lee de Bie, Postdoctoral Fellow in McMaster University’s School of Social Work, community partners Peer Support Canada (Allison Dunning, Executive Director) and PeerWorks Ontario (Allyson Theodorou, Executive Director), and co-investigators Rochelle Maurice, Dr. Tina Wilson, Vaishnavi Yogendran, and Dr. Christina Sinding invite applications for three research assistant positions to support a national peer support project funded by a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant.

Peer support (PS) involves drawing on shared lived experiences to learn from and support each other. Manifestations of ‘peer’ work and the terms used to describe it can vary significantly across diverse contexts. They include, but are not limited to, formal and informal, funded and grassroots self-help, mutual aid, PS, consciousness-raising, healing, and community care collectives, as well as other initiatives that affirm the value of supporting each other through lived, living, and shared experiences (e.g., of an illness, disability, identity, heritage, culture, phenomenon, or form of marginalization).

Project Background

The national values for peer support practice released in Canada in 2013 have been widely adopted. Yet there are significant limitations in how these values have been sourced and articulated that warrant suspicion of the implied consensus. This study will contribute to research on interrogating professional ethics/values to support equity and reconciliation.

The 2009 consultation process that led to the articulation of Canada’s PS values involved minimally described methods: an international literature review and environmental scan of policy frameworks, a 3-question survey of 65 PS organizations, and endorsement by an unspecified group of PS leaders.Similar gaps and concerns about process repeat across the international literature. Statements of “international consensus” on PS values continue to disproportionately reference leadership, materials, and knowledge from PS in the Global North. Conceptualizations of PS values are commonly consolidated from literature reviews with little indication of how articles were identified and selected, privileging dominant Western, Eurocentric, White accounts of PS practice.

Projects that move beyond literature synthesis to involve new consultation or engagement with peer supporters are commonly small in size, do not disclose or consider the presence and impact of sociodemographic diversity on results, and/or fail to meaningfully involve groups commonly underrepresented in PS knowledge and policy. The analytic processes used to arrive at a finalized set of PS values is rarely or poorly described.

The limited content on PS values is also impactful. The current national definitions of PS values are each only a sentence long, contributing to variation in how they are understood, used, prioritized, and balanced to justify and support particular practices. The few detailed analyses of PS values that exist reflect minimal awareness of considerations related to equity and intersectionality. A core tension in PS between individualistic relational values (e.g., self-determination) and collective values (e.g., social justice, advocacy) is underexamined, risking the infiltration of dominant ideologies of individualism into PS practice, the supplanting of its social justice roots, and “ peer support drift ”. Moreover, the PS community will continue to struggle to address racism in PS work and services in the absence of concrete examples of how to live values of equity and reconciliation.

Project Goals

This project will engage the national PS community in reflection on and renewal of PS values. The research assistants will support achievement of the following goals:

• Gather national feedback on the current values for peer support in Canada, with a particular focus on perspectives from Indigenous, Black, and racialized peer support practitioners and programs across the country. This will be done through a national survey and focus groups.
• Assess the limitations, gaps, and opportunities for advancing equity and justice through articulations of peer support values. This will be supported by an extensive literature review and concept analysis on the history, genealogy, and meaning of peer support values.
• Develop a renewed set of peer support values to serve as the foundation for Peer Support Canada’s work to revise its national standards of practice to best support the next decade of peer support in Canada. This will take the form of a Living Our Values Toolkit.

Project Activities

A team of researchers, research assistants, ethicists, and peer support leaders and practitioners will coordinate and facilitate the following activities:

• Project launch webinar introducing the project and inviting engagement from peer supporters, peer support programs, and partners across the country in the revision of national peer support values.
• Literature review and environmental scan to explore the historical foundations, evolving meanings, and applications of peer support values across diverse contexts and communities. We will turn our attention to literature rarely included in the dominant syntheses of PS values in the mental health sector (i.e., from anti-racism social movements and initiatives).
• Bimonthly meetings of three advisory groups, including BIPOC peer supporters, provincial/territorial peer support representatives, and interdisciplinary academics to provide guidance on data collection tool design, consultation findings, toolkit development, and national consensus-building.

Creation, dissemination, and analysis of a national survey of peer supporters across Canada (n=500) to gather feedback on the strengths, limitations, gaps, and future directions of the values articulated in 2013, with a particular focus on advancing equity and justice in peer support practice.

Virtual focus groups with Indigenous, Black, racialized, Francophone, and substance use health peer support communities to ensure diverse lived and living experience perspectives meaningfully shape the revision of peer support values and supporting resources.

• Co-development of a national Living Our Peer Support Values Toolkit to translate revised values into practical guidance.
• National knowledge mobilization and dissemination activities, including a webinar, graphic design and French translation of project resources, and a Community of Practice to support implementation of revised peer support values across Canada.

The research assistants will support the administrative, communication, project management, and research tasks required to successfully complete these activities.

Additional Information

This role will specifically assist with an artificial intelligence-supported literature review and synthesis on peer support values. The RA will also support coordination, notetaking, and synthesis of feedback from the Advisory Group of Interdisciplinary Academics and focus groups with Francophone and substance use health peer support networks.

Accountabilities

• 1. Designs, adapts and performs specialized research procedures.
• 2. Carries out complex statistical analysis.
• 3. Assists with recruiting participants for studies.
• 4. Coordinates and conducts structured project participant interviews and focus groups.
• 5. Conducts literature reviews and synthesis.
• 6. Contributes to the writing of research related reports and manuscripts.
• 7. Coordinates the use of laboratory equipment.
• 8. Records, classifies, and summarizes research data according to established procedures.
• 9. Performs other related tasks as outlined by the research coordinator.

To ask any clarification questions about the project and roles before applying, please get in touch with Lee ( [e-mail] ). Note: The role accountabilities might be reorganized slightly to best align with combined candidate skills and interests (e.g., expertise in statistical analysis but not in qualitative analysis). Please indicate any preferred areas of focus in your application. Any changes will be discussed with candidates during later stages of recruitment.

Applicants selected for an interview will be contacted to schedule a time.

Employment Equity Statement

McMaster University is located on the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee and Mississauga Nations and within the lands protected by the “Dish With One Spoon” wampum agreement.

The diversity of our workforce is at the core of our innovation and creativity and strengthens our research and teaching excellence. In keeping with its Statement on Building an Inclusive Community with a Shared Purpose, McMaster University strives to embody the values of respect, collaboration and diversity, and has a strong commitment to employment equity.

The University seeks qualified candidates who share our commitment to equity and inclusion, who will contribute to the diversification of ideas and perspectives, and especially welcomes applications from indigenous (First Nations, Métis or Inuit) peoples, members of racialized communities, persons with disabilities, women, and persons who identify as 2SLGBTQ+.

As part of McMaster’s commitment, all applicants are invited to complete a confidential Applicant Diversity Survey through the online application submission process. The Survey questionnaire requests voluntary self-identification in relation to equity-seeking groups that have historically faced and continue to face barriers in employment. Please refer to the Applicant Diversity Survey - Statement of Collection for additional information.

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Interview Experience

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