Defining Rigor in Family and Consumer Sciences

Abstract

Despite federal and state mandates that CTE programs, including FCS, offer rigorous curricula, there is currently no evidence of systematically defining rigor in the FCS discipline. Drawing from Biggs and Büchler (2007), who defined rigor for practice-based research in design, this paper argues that rigor originates from the practical-intellectual ecology and practice of the FCS discipline. Rigorous practice depends on the practitioner’s critical studies surrounding the field, the ability to stir concern for the multidimensionality of issues, the exercise of intellectual dispositions, and the ability to promote praxis among students. Developing the practitioner’s capacity for rigorous practice includes formation of a practical-intellectual community, promotion of practical reasoning skills, and acquisition of intellectual dispositions through pedagogical reasoning.