The Education Department at UC Santa Cruz is asking critical questions in order to shape the future of teaching and learning, both inside and outside of the classroom.
We’re preparing our state’s next generation of teachers, educational leaders, and researchers to improve educational opportunities for historically marginalized students, and we are working with community partners to transform underlying systems of inequity and oppression.
Academics
Undergraduate
Education, Democracy, and Justice major
Our Bachelor of Arts degree in education, democracy, and justice allows students to explore educational theory, practice, and research that questions the status quo and prepares students for future careers as teachers, educators in informal settings like museums, or educational policymakers, administrators, curriculum writers, and more. Students often pursue independent study, complete double majors, and intern with schools and other youth-serving organizations.
Undergraduate
Education minors
Our general education minor provides opportunities to examine basic questions, theories, practices, and research in the field of education through six courses, including four upper-division electives. Meanwhile, the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) minor is a set of eight courses that specifically serves STEM majors who are considering careers in secondary mathematics or science teaching.
Graduate
Master’s degree and credential program
This twelve month program allows students to obtain a Master of Arts in Education while completing the requirements for a California SB2042 Preliminary Teaching Credential in single or multiple subjects. Students will develop both subject matter mastery and the skills to be change agents serving in communities that have been historically marginalized by the education system. Graduates go on to become leaders within the teaching profession.
Graduate
Doctoral degree and designated emphasis
Our Ph.D. program prepares innovative and equity-minded educational researchers, scholars, and leaders who go on to work in research universities, liberal arts colleges, teacher education programs, school districts, community organizations, and policy and research think tanks. Our exceptional interdisciplinarity provides flexibility, innovation, and theoretical depth, and our students have ample opportunities for community-engaged research.
Faculty
Our faculty are dedicated to working with our undergraduate and graduate students to reimagine and transform education.
Our scholarship and teaching advance equity and justice by impacting the preparation of K-12 teachers, their professional learning once in the field, the development of curriculum and pedagogy, research-practice partnerships in schools and districts, and policy development and implementation. Our faculty members are both renowned education researchers and accomplished teaching professionals.
Research
The Education Department’s interdisciplinary research covers both teaching and learning, with a focus on equity, systemic barriers, access, and achievement.
Our research offers new insights into how education can bring about national improvements in everything from science literacy to civic engagement to cultural sensitivity and social justice. We work in partnership with and in service to our community and build upon a foundational understanding of how history and power dynamics have shaped the current educational landscape.
