Research Grants on Education: COVID-19 Related Special Grant Cycle

Overview

<p>The COVID-19 Related Research Grants support education research projects that will contribute to understanding the rapid shifts in education in this time of crisis and change. We are especially interested in supporting two primary categories of projects. First, we are interested in supporting studies that aim to understand and disrupt <strong>the reproduction and deepening of educational inequality caused by the COVID-19 crisis</strong>. Second, we also recognize that in times of great disruption and change, there may be opportunities to remake and imagine anew forms of equitable education. Thus, we are also interested in research projects that are working to <strong>reimagine educational opportunities</strong> in these times.</p> <div class="col-lg-7 offset-lg-1 post-body aos-init aos-animate"> <p>As with other Spencer grant programs, this program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not for a particular research topic, discipline, design, method, or location. We will be accepting applications on a rolling basis with budgets up to $50,000 for projects ranging from one to three years. We will review applications received by May 4th, again on May 18th, and again on June 8th. Our goal for this program is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious, and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education in these times.</p> <p>The COVID-19 Related Research Grants supports education research projects that will understand the rapid shifts and contribute to the improvement of education during this time of crisis with budgets up to $50,000 for projects ranging from one to three years. We are especially interested in supporting two primary categories of projects. First, we are interested in supporting rapid response grants that aim to understand and disrupt the reproduction and deepening of educational inequality caused by the COVID-19 crisis. Second, we also recognize that in times of great disruption and change, there may be opportunities to remake and imagine anew forms of equitable education. Thus, we are also interested in research projects that are working to reimagine educational opportunities in these times. While we are open to what these reimagined educational opportunities might be, please note that they <em>must</em> be research projects.</p> <p>This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not required to focus on a particular research topic, discipline, design, or method. We hope that scholars and their partners will identify the most compelling and needed areas of immediate research. For instance, scholars might focus on: K-12 Instructional challenges, responses, and innovations; racial and geographic disparities in the impacts of COVID and COVID related responses; supporting and engaging children and families; assessment challenges and opportunities; social-emotional learning and well-being; educator leadership and development; systems change and policy making.</p> <p>We are interested in proposals at all levels and in all settings of learning, including early childhood, higher education, and in schools, families, and communities. We are also interested in studies that seek to understand the situated experiences of non-dominant groups, including English language learners, immigrants, minoritized communities, Indigenous communities, students with disabilities, highly mobile and institutionalized youth (e.g., foster youth or those in youth prisons), and rural communities.</p> <p>Our goal for this program is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious, and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education during this global health crisis. We seek to support scholarship that develops new foundational knowledge that may have a lasting impact on educational discourse and opportunity or may have a significant impact on practice and policy in these times. We value work that fosters creative and open-minded scholarship, engages in deep inquiry, and examines robust questions related to education and inequality in times of crisis as well as those that may persist beyond the current moment as a result of COVID-19 responses. We also value work that is engaging the possibilities that may be emerging in these times.</p> <p>To this end, this program supports proposals from multiple disciplinary and methodological perspectives, both domestically and internationally, from scholars at various stages in their careers. We anticipate that proposals will span a wide range of topics and disciplines that innovatively investigate questions central to education in times of crisis. Moreover, we expect and welcome methodological diversity in answering pressing questions; thus, we are open to projects that utilize a wide array of research methods including quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, ethnographies, design-based research, participatory methods, and historical research, to name a few. We are open to projects that might incorporate data from multiple and varied sources or work closely with practitioners or community members over the life of the project. Further, we recognize that social distancing policies may pose challenges to some modes of inquiry. We encourage creative new approaches to the collection and analysis of data.</p> </div> <p></p>