The Research to Practice (RtP) Travel Grant is now open for applications! RtP grants are small grants (no more than $3,000 USD) whose goal is to increase the presence of research on and about the teaching and learning of Arabic in schools at such conferences. RtP grants are for 1) researchers of school-based Arabic pedagogy at primary and secondary levels and 2) current Arabic teachers or administrators of Arabic programs at primary and secondary schools who actively participate in such research. RtP grants support travel to conferences taking place in one of QFI’s geographies (US, Canada, UK, or EU), unless a conference outside of these geographies has been explicitly stated as eligible in a QFI Special Call.
Grant Overview
Research findings in education can provide valuable insights to underpin effective teaching practices. However, such findings remain inaccessible, difficult to interpret, or difficult to translate into practice for teachers. And while research has been conducted on the teaching and learning of Arabic, it mostly exists in the higher education sector, and with adult learners. Little research has been conducted in primary and secondary schools, where learners may have lower levels of proficiency and different motivational profiles. This body of research, or discussions about the school sector, are rare or non-existent at research-based or academic conferences. Research to Practice Travel Grants (RtPs) are small grants (no more than $3,000 USD) whose goal is to increase the presence of research on and about the teaching and learning of Arabic in schools at such conferences. The goal of this grant is to bridge the gap between research and practice by supporting scholars and professionals in sharing their findings to foster collaboration, knowledge exchange, and application of research in classroom settings.
RtP travel grants are for 1) researchers of school-based Arabic pedagogy at primary and secondary levels and 2) current Arabic teachers or administrators of Arabic programs at primary and secondary schools who actively participate in such research.
Applicants may apply for funding to attend an in-person local, regional, national, or international conference of their choice. Please note that at this time, this grant can only support travel to conferences taking place in one of QFI’s geographies (US, Canada, UK, or EU), unless a conference outside of these geographies has been explicitly stated as eligible in a QFI Special Call. Grant funding can be used for attendance costs, including program registration and fees, travel to the conference, and lodging for the conference's duration for a total of no more than $3,000 USD.
At this time, only applicants who are or will be presenting at a conference are eligible for this grant. Abstracts and proof of acceptance must be submitted with your application. Those submitting an abstract to a conference who have not heard back must provide proof of acceptance when it is received. Receipt of a RtP grant is contingent upon acceptance of the submitted abstract.
Eligible Events
RtP Grants can fund the following:
- Attendance to conferences that are either language-focused and/or specifically about teaching Arabic
- Local, regional, national, or international conferences in QFI’s geographies (US, UK, or EU) or explicitly stated as eligible in a QFI Special Call.
- In-person conferences
Ineligible Events
RtP Grants are different from QFI’s Teacher Professional Development Grants (TPDs). TPDs restrict eligibility to teachers of Arabic only. The following list of events cannot be funded by RTPs but can be supported by TPDs:
- Teacher certification programs, modules or courses related to teaching the Arabic language or Arab World
- Travel and attendance to K to 12 professional development programming (workshops, trainings, etc.) including local and regional conferences.
- You are a K to 12 educator who is not involved in research but wants to present at a conference.
Please also note that RtP grants do not cover cultural immersion trips abroad for teachers and students. We also do not fund any requests for travel to ACTFL or ALL. If you have been selected to present at ACTFL or ALL, support may be available from QFI outside of this grant. Please direct all enquiries related to ACTFL to events@qfi.org or for ALL to ukarabic@qfi.org
Applicant Eligibility
To be eligible for a RtP grant you must:
- Be either a researcher of the teaching and learning of Arabic in primary and secondary levels OR a current Arabic teacher/administrator of Arabic programs at public/state-funded K-12 schools who actively participate in research (you will need to demonstrate proof of this in your application);
- Have an accepted abstract for an upcoming conference; are planning to submit an abstract; or have submitted an abstract and are waiting for the decision;
- Reside in North America, the United Kingdom, or Europe.
- Have not received a RtP in the current academic year (you are only eligible to receive one RtP per academic year); exceptions may be made for Special Calls.
QFI’s Research Priorities
Your presentation must fall under one of QFI’s Research Priorities. In your application, please be sure to note which of these areas you are contributing to. Building on the 5 research areas, at the 2024 Research to Practice Forum held by the University of Oxford and QFI, we established priorities for new research by asking stakeholders (academics, teachers, policy makers, administrators and learners) what they consider the most pressing areas for focus of future research. Below are QFI’s 5 Research Areas and the priority research questions.
Research Area 1: Arabic as a Global Language
- What might an effective multiglossic approach to teaching Arabic look like?
Research Area 2: Teacher Pipeline
- What approaches to teacher development are effective for teachers of Arabic?
- How do we develop heritage learners' positive sense of identity through their Arabic learning?
- How can we ensure that instruction and materials are appropriate for learners of different levels within the same classroom (across different language skills and areas of learning)?
Research Area 3: Teaching about Arab Culture
- How can critical cultural competence be taught effectively to different categories of learners?
Research Area 4: Motivations to include Arabic in School Offers
- What resources are available for teaching Arabic at different levels, and to students of different backgrounds, and how effective are they?
- What factors influence, generate, and sustain learners' motivation to study Arabic?
Research Area 5: Students
- How do we design valid, reliable, inclusive, and fair assessments of AL2 proficiency for learners of diverse backgrounds?
- What strategies can learners use in relation to different skills (reading, writing, listening, vocabulary, learning etc.) to help improve their proficiency?
- How can students be encouraged to use Arabic inside and outside the classroom?
How to Apply
Please register on QFI’s Grants Management Portal, SM Apply, at www.qfi.smapply.org, creating a user account and profile. Upon completing your login credentials and user profile, you will be prompted to confirm your eligibility before submitting your application materials. Once you have confirmed your eligibility, you can access the application directly: https://qfi.smapply.org/prog/research_to_practice_grant.
To apply, you must submit an itemized budget detailing all anticipated expenses, reflecting economy class fares for transportation and lodging within the USG per diem rates. If you already have partial funding from another source, a RtP can be used to cover remaining expenses so long as proof of this existing funding is provided.
In addition, the application entails:
- Verification of your eligibility
- Provision of conference details (name, dates, location, and website, if available)
- Upload of your abstract and, if available, proof of acceptance/submission
- Connecting your work to QFI’s Research Priorities
- Upload of your CV
- If applicable, proof of existing partial funding from another source
If you receive a RtP Grant, please note that to receive your funds, you must complete a conference feedback form (and this includes sharing your presentation) and submit all required receipts for reimbursement no more than two weeks after the conclusion of the conference. Applications are not a guarantee of funding and are accepted on a rolling basis and approved amounts may vary (you are not guaranteed to get the full $3,000). Please do not make any purchases that you assume will be reimbursed by QFI unless you have officially received a RtP grant. QFI has a minimum two-week review period for this grant and cannot fund events that are less than a month within the application date.
Please email research@qfi.org with any questions.
Research to Practice Grant
The Research to Practice (RtP) Travel Grant is now open for applications! RtP grants are small grants (no more than $3,000 USD) whose goal is to increase the presence of research on and about the teaching and learning of Arabic in schools at such conferences. RtP grants are for 1) researchers of school-based Arabic pedagogy at primary and secondary levels and 2) current Arabic teachers or administrators of Arabic programs at primary and secondary schools who actively participate in such research. RtP grants support travel to conferences taking place in one of QFI’s geographies (US, Canada, UK, or EU), unless a conference outside of these geographies has been explicitly stated as eligible in a QFI Special Call.
Grant Overview
Research findings in education can provide valuable insights to underpin effective teaching practices. However, such findings remain inaccessible, difficult to interpret, or difficult to translate into practice for teachers. And while research has been conducted on the teaching and learning of Arabic, it mostly exists in the higher education sector, and with adult learners. Little research has been conducted in primary and secondary schools, where learners may have lower levels of proficiency and different motivational profiles. This body of research, or discussions about the school sector, are rare or non-existent at research-based or academic conferences. Research to Practice Travel Grants (RtPs) are small grants (no more than $3,000 USD) whose goal is to increase the presence of research on and about the teaching and learning of Arabic in schools at such conferences. The goal of this grant is to bridge the gap between research and practice by supporting scholars and professionals in sharing their findings to foster collaboration, knowledge exchange, and application of research in classroom settings.
RtP travel grants are for 1) researchers of school-based Arabic pedagogy at primary and secondary levels and 2) current Arabic teachers or administrators of Arabic programs at primary and secondary schools who actively participate in such research.
Applicants may apply for funding to attend an in-person local, regional, national, or international conference of their choice. Please note that at this time, this grant can only support travel to conferences taking place in one of QFI’s geographies (US, Canada, UK, or EU), unless a conference outside of these geographies has been explicitly stated as eligible in a QFI Special Call. Grant funding can be used for attendance costs, including program registration and fees, travel to the conference, and lodging for the conference's duration for a total of no more than $3,000 USD.
At this time, only applicants who are or will be presenting at a conference are eligible for this grant. Abstracts and proof of acceptance must be submitted with your application. Those submitting an abstract to a conference who have not heard back must provide proof of acceptance when it is received. Receipt of a RtP grant is contingent upon acceptance of the submitted abstract.
Eligible Events
RtP Grants can fund the following:
- Attendance to conferences that are either language-focused and/or specifically about teaching Arabic
- Local, regional, national, or international conferences in QFI’s geographies (US, UK, or EU) or explicitly stated as eligible in a QFI Special Call.
- In-person conferences
Ineligible Events
RtP Grants are different from QFI’s Teacher Professional Development Grants (TPDs). TPDs restrict eligibility to teachers of Arabic only. The following list of events cannot be funded by RTPs but can be supported by TPDs:
- Teacher certification programs, modules or courses related to teaching the Arabic language or Arab World
- Travel and attendance to K to 12 professional development programming (workshops, trainings, etc.) including local and regional conferences.
- You are a K to 12 educator who is not involved in research but wants to present at a conference.
Please also note that RtP grants do not cover cultural immersion trips abroad for teachers and students. We also do not fund any requests for travel to ACTFL or ALL. If you have been selected to present at ACTFL or ALL, support may be available from QFI outside of this grant. Please direct all enquiries related to ACTFL to events@qfi.org or for ALL to ukarabic@qfi.org
Applicant Eligibility
To be eligible for a RtP grant you must:
- Be either a researcher of the teaching and learning of Arabic in primary and secondary levels OR a current Arabic teacher/administrator of Arabic programs at public/state-funded K-12 schools who actively participate in research (you will need to demonstrate proof of this in your application);
- Have an accepted abstract for an upcoming conference; are planning to submit an abstract; or have submitted an abstract and are waiting for the decision;
- Reside in North America, the United Kingdom, or Europe.
- Have not received a RtP in the current academic year (you are only eligible to receive one RtP per academic year); exceptions may be made for Special Calls.
QFI’s Research Priorities
Your presentation must fall under one of QFI’s Research Priorities. In your application, please be sure to note which of these areas you are contributing to. Building on the 5 research areas, at the 2024 Research to Practice Forum held by the University of Oxford and QFI, we established priorities for new research by asking stakeholders (academics, teachers, policy makers, administrators and learners) what they consider the most pressing areas for focus of future research. Below are QFI’s 5 Research Areas and the priority research questions.
Research Area 1: Arabic as a Global Language
- What might an effective multiglossic approach to teaching Arabic look like?
Research Area 2: Teacher Pipeline
- What approaches to teacher development are effective for teachers of Arabic?
- How do we develop heritage learners' positive sense of identity through their Arabic learning?
- How can we ensure that instruction and materials are appropriate for learners of different levels within the same classroom (across different language skills and areas of learning)?
Research Area 3: Teaching about Arab Culture
- How can critical cultural competence be taught effectively to different categories of learners?
Research Area 4: Motivations to include Arabic in School Offers
- What resources are available for teaching Arabic at different levels, and to students of different backgrounds, and how effective are they?
- What factors influence, generate, and sustain learners' motivation to study Arabic?
Research Area 5: Students
- How do we design valid, reliable, inclusive, and fair assessments of AL2 proficiency for learners of diverse backgrounds?
- What strategies can learners use in relation to different skills (reading, writing, listening, vocabulary, learning etc.) to help improve their proficiency?
- How can students be encouraged to use Arabic inside and outside the classroom?
How to Apply
Please register on QFI’s Grants Management Portal, SM Apply, at www.qfi.smapply.org, creating a user account and profile. Upon completing your login credentials and user profile, you will be prompted to confirm your eligibility before submitting your application materials. Once you have confirmed your eligibility, you can access the application directly: https://qfi.smapply.org/prog/research_to_practice_grant.
To apply, you must submit an itemized budget detailing all anticipated expenses, reflecting economy class fares for transportation and lodging within the USG per diem rates. If you already have partial funding from another source, a RtP can be used to cover remaining expenses so long as proof of this existing funding is provided.
In addition, the application entails:
- Verification of your eligibility
- Provision of conference details (name, dates, location, and website, if available)
- Upload of your abstract and, if available, proof of acceptance/submission
- Connecting your work to QFI’s Research Priorities
- Upload of your CV
- If applicable, proof of existing partial funding from another source
If you receive a RtP Grant, please note that to receive your funds, you must complete a conference feedback form (and this includes sharing your presentation) and submit all required receipts for reimbursement no more than two weeks after the conclusion of the conference. Applications are not a guarantee of funding and are accepted on a rolling basis and approved amounts may vary (you are not guaranteed to get the full $3,000). Please do not make any purchases that you assume will be reimbursed by QFI unless you have officially received a RtP grant. QFI has a minimum two-week review period for this grant and cannot fund events that are less than a month within the application date.
Please email research@qfi.org with any questions.