About CSFE

The Council of Social Foundations in Education (CSFE) is a national federation of professional associations and societies in the educational foundations, educational studies, and educational policy studies fields devoted to maintaining and strengthening the role of those foundations disciplines in the preparation of educational personnel, in the study and analysis of education, and in policymaking related to education at all levels in the United States. The foundations of education, educational studies, and educational policy studies involve the study of education utilizing such disciplines as history, philosophy, sociology, psychology, social psychology, anthopology, economics, and political science, or such interdisciplinary fields as comparative and international education, multicultural education, community and adult education, and many others. All such study stresses interpretive, normative, and critical perspectives in understanding, analyzing, and implementing educational theory and practice.

Over eighteen years ago, in 1986, the Council for Learned Societies in Education, renamed to Council for Social Foundations in Education in 2000 reissued the Standards for Academic and Professional Instruction in Foundations of Education, Educational Studies, and Educational Policy Studies, originally developed in 1978 by a Task Force of the American Educational Studies Association. These Standards, republished in a revised second edition by CLSE in 1996, offer guidance to institutions of higher education, state education agencies, and other national educational and policymaking organizations concerning the definition, role, and significance of study in the foundations of education.

CSFE (originally named the Council of Learned Societies) was founded in 1980 by seven member associations: American Educational Studies Association (AESA), Comparative and International Education Society, History of Education Society, The John Dewey Society, Philosophy of Education Society, The Society for Educational Reconstruction, and the Society of Professors of Education. Today, CSFE is composed of over twenty member organizations that range from international societies to regional and state associations.

CSFE holds business meetings twice each year, in the spring in conjunction with the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and in the fall in conjunction with the annual conference of AESA. CSFE is non-partisan and is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt 501c(3) organization.

Committee on Academic Standards and Accreditation
(CASA- a standing committee of the American Educational Studies Association)

AESA Bylaws Description:
5.2.1 Committee on Academic Standards and Accreditation (established 1978). The Committee on Academic Standards and Accreditation has responsibility for maintaining and, when appropriate, updating, the Standards for Academic and
Professional Instruction in Foundations of Education, Educational Studies, and Educational Policy Studies. Its other duties include:

5.2.1.1 making professional educators aware of the Standards;

5.2.1.2 educating foundations of education faculties regarding the use of the Standards;

5.2.1.3 gain support of accreditation and state departments of education in the general enforcement of the Standards.

The Committee will consist of nine members, six of whom will serve. staggered three-year terms so that two of these members will be replaced annually. In addition, one-year terms will be served by each of the following: an international representative, a specific appointee of the President, and a specific appointee of the president of the Council of Social Foundations of Education
(CFSE). The committee shall annually solicit nominations for new members from the Corporation membership and shall elect from these nominees new appointees to be recommended for approval by the Executive Council. The committee shall elect a chairperson from its members to serve a two-year term.