APS Spotlight

New Grant Categories Support Antiracist Curricula and Online Learning

The APS Teaching Fund Committee has established new grant categories to encourage the development of antiracist curricula and to facilitate the development and dissemination of best practices for teaching psychological science online.

Grants for antiracist curricula will be available twice per year as small grants up to $5,000. This category of grants is designed to support “projects that aim to eliminate racial bias in online psychological science curricula and incorporate principles of racial justice into the online teaching of psychological science content.”

The new grants come at a time of tremendous social upheaval in response to concerns over police brutality against Black people and align with APS’s broader commitment to end systemic racism and advance equity and justice, according to Laurie Hunter, chair of the APS Teaching Fund Steering Committee.

“Diversity and inclusion is an issue of critical importance in our world today,” said Hunter, a psychology lecturer at Christopher Newport University. “Encouraging students to embrace and to appreciate our differences and understand we are all part of the human race is crucial to higher education.”

The Microgrants for Online Learning program provided grants of up to $1,000 to support projects in six general categories, including webinars and virtual meetings, support for individual classes, scholarship of teaching and learning, and antiracist curricula.

Fifty-six individuals and teams applied for the program, with an average funding request of $960. Of these, the APS Teaching Fund Committee selected 10 projects for funding, including:

  • Interactive Instructional Videos for Teaching Developmental Psychology Improv as an Online Teaching Method to Promote Student Engagement and Adjustment in an Introductory Psychology Course
  • The Psychology of Eye Contact and Screen Presence in Synchronous, Video Conferencing in
  • Undergraduate Instruction: Protocols for Student Engagement and Motivation
  • Addressing Systemic Racism in Clinical Psychology and Related Programs

Learn more about the APS Teaching Fund.


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