Dec 26, 2024  
2023-2024 Graduate Catalog 
    
2023-2024 Graduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Education and Social Policy (PhD)


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Program Educational Goals


Students who successfully earn their PhD in Education and Social Policy will demonstrate the ability to:

  1. Use advanced research design and analysis methods that emphasizes multiple ways of asking and answering critical education and social policy questions;
  2. Synthesize interdisciplinary perspectives in their research,
  3. Provide insight into the complexity between policy systems and communities, including understanding the multi-directionality of research and practice,
  4. Actively engage with scholarship in applied contexts-e.g., interact with real data, with policymakers and practitioners, and/or with those impacted by the policies they are studying (families, schools, and communities, etc.), and
  5.  Solve problems using expertise which goes beyond a technocratic approach to studying education and social policy, to include understandings of historical, critical, and political perspectives on inequality, situated in particular contexts; and 

Requirements for the Degree


The program will offer a PhD in Education and Social Policy with the opportunity to earn a

  if the program’s coursework is completed.

The program requires 52 credits.

  • PhD students are required to take 12 credits from the core curriculum, 9 methods credits, and 6 research design credits. Additionally, students will have 12 elective credits: three of those will be advanced methods or design, three will be their chosen discipline (e.g., sociology, psychology, political science), and six will be in their area of interest (e.g., early childhood policy or social policy). The program is designed to allow the completion of coursework in two years, though taking coursework into the third year is acceptable.
  • PhD students are required to have 4 credits of Colloquium and 9 dissertation credits

Policy, Education and Human Development Core:


Twelve credits.

Methods Requirements


Nine credits.

Regression/Multivariate Analysis:


Three credits.

Advanced Quantitative:


One of the following for three credits:

Qualitative Analysis:


One of the following for three credits:

Research Design Sequence:


Six credits.

Electives:


Twelve credits.

Advanced Methods or Research Design:


Three credits required- Students may meet this requirement by (1) taking an advanced method or design course; choose one of the following OR (2) taking a methods or design independent study, which reflects substantive area work that they do independently or through their assistantship.

Education and Social Policy Electives:


Students are required to earn 6 credits in education and social policy. They may do so by (1) taking two education and social policy elective courses (options listed below) or (2) taking one education and social policy course and taking an independent study, which reflects substantive area work that they do independently or through their assistantship. (see the Program Policy Statement for details)

Colloquium:


Four credits required.

For PhD students, each semester for two academic years, there will be pass/fail colloquium students are required to attend (one credit per semester for the first four semesters). For the third and fourth year, students are required to attend each year at least 6 academic presentations, and participate in at least two sessions as a presenter or leader. Presentations can be in HDFS, SOE, Biden, or another unit on campus that aligns with the student’s research interests.

Dissertation:


Nine credits.

Last Revised for 2023-2024 Academic Year


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