The goal of the Ph.D. in education is to support graduate students in becoming creative scholars who engage in research focused on the educational needs of students from linguistic and cultural groups that have historically not fared well in our nation’s public schools. To achieve this goal, this program provides students with grounding in the varieties of interdisciplinary theorizing, research methods, and applications needed to advance the study of learning and teaching for diverse student populations. The courses and research experiences are closely related to practice in K-12 classrooms. Students in this interdisciplinary program apply tools and perspectives from education, anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, cognitive science, and cultural historical activity theory. The program integrates theory and practice to examine learning and teaching within the multiple contexts of classroom, school, family, and community. Graduates of this program will be qualified to teach and to conduct the kinds of educational research demanded by tenure-track positions in research and regional universities. Graduates may also work in non-university based institutions that focus on teacher professional development, curriculum development, and related areas of educational research and development.

Together with his or her faculty academic adviser, each student develops an integrated program of study that includes advanced coursework, seminars, and electives within the five program concentrations:

• language, literacy and culture
• teachers and teacher development
• mathematics and science education
• learning and teaching
• social and cultural contexts of education