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Request for Proposals: Strengthening Higher Education Research Project

By AAFCS Team posted 03-29-2023 12:15 PM

  

Request for Proposals Issued by the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences

Strengthening Higher Education Research Project

In 2020, the AAFCS Board of Directors reinstated the Task Force for Program Advancement (TFPA).  The purpose of the Task Force is to proactively support and strengthen higher education units (i.e., departments, colleges, programs, etc.) associated with the people-centered sciences, also named as Family and Consumer Sciences, Human Ecology, Human Sciences, Health & Human Sciences, etc.

 

Recent and continuing considerations of how to strengthen and sustain FCS programs by the Taskforce for Program Advancement (TFPA) have included discussion of the role of AAFCS accreditation in credentialing and supporting program quality and viability. Yet, neither the documentation of the benefits nor the challenges of being accredited is available at present. While a study published in the Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences in 2016 provides a background perspective, the data collection for that study is now nearly a decade old and there have been significant changes in higher education.

Objective: AAFCS seeks to fund a research project to assess the perceived strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities associated with AAFCS accreditation. Proposed research projects should address the purposes of AAFCS accreditation as reflected in Accreditation Documents for Undergraduate Programs in Family and Consumer Sciences, 2019 Edition.  The research project can be quantitative, qualitative, or a mixed methods design.

The funded research should include:

  • Data collection from AAFCS-accredited programs;
  • Data collection from FCS units who have dropped AAFCS accreditation in the last 5-10 years; and
  • Data collection from FCS content units that have not sought AAFCS accreditation.

Funding Amount:  One award will be given; the maximum award amount is $20,000.

Eligibility:  Preference among applicants will be given to individuals and teams of researchers from family and consumer sciences/human sciences/human ecology programs, with the principal investigator from a program accredited by the AAFCS Council for Accreditation. All investigators must be AAFCS members. Priority will be given to submissions from tenured/tenure-track full-time faculty members involving students as part of an investigation team.  Members of the AAFCS Board of Directors, AAFCS Task Force for Program Advancement, AAFCS Council for Accreditation, or AAFCS Staff are not eligible to apply during their terms of office and/or employment.

Click here to read the Request for Proposals with funding expectations and specific instructions for the application and budget.

Submission Deadline:   Submit the completed application as PDF to research@aafcs.org by 11:59 PM ET on April 30, 2023 (Deadline Extended to May 3, 2023)

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