Cultural Foundations of Education, MS

Contact:

Cathy Engstrom, Faculty Director of Graduate Studies, cmengstr@syr.edu

Faculty

Barbara Applebaum, Alan Foley, Michael Gill, Eunjun Kim, Gretchen Lopez, Mario Perez, Dalia Rodriguez, Susan Thomas

Cultural Foundations of Education is a highly demanding and nationally prominent interdisciplinary graduate program created to support fundamental inquiry into the nature of education. Graduate students draw on the disciplines of history, philosophy, and sociology to analyze issues related to inequality in education. Faculty interests include disability, the relationship of popular culture and mass media to education, race, racism and multiculturalism, identity and difference, democracy and education, intergroup dialogue, theories of knowledge and feminist theory. Our alumni have success finding jobs in higher education, foundations, policy research, school systems, and government agencies.

Each program is individually designed, allowing students to work with their advisors to build their own program around their research interests. This may include courses from other Syracuse University programs and colleges, including the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and the College of Arts and Sciences. At the same time, cohorts of students take courses in the department together so that students share a common vocabulary.

Faculty members are well-known in their fields and actively engaged in ongoing research. The department’s outstanding graduate students collaborate with faculty in research, publishing, and professional activities. The department regularly sponsors opportunities for students and faculty to share their work, discuss current issues, or read and critique current articles. There is a strong emphasis on community amongst scholars.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Describe historical, philosophical, and/or sociological foundations of educational practice and policy

2. Analyze the way in which schools reproduce or reduce inequality in schooling and schools

3. Analyze and critique research that explores the taken-for-granted assumptions and values underlying education

4. Analyze qualitative research studies, apply qualitative methods to a research project and have familiarity with a number of paradigms within qualitative studies

Major Requirements

The Master of Science degree program in Cultural Foundations of Education is designed to foster and support fundamental inquiry into the nature of education. Students draw on history, philosophy, sociology and other disciplines to analyze such issues in education as inequality, disability, popular culture, mass media, the philosophy of multiculturalism and racism. The program consists of either 30 credits and a Master’s Intensive Exam or 24 credits and a Master’s Thesis (6 credits). In either option there is one required course: EDU 603: Introduction to Qualitative Research.

Graduate students choose Cultural Foundations of Education because each program of study is individually designed. Students may build their work around their own research interests and are encouraged to use diverse research approaches, such as combining philosophical analysis with empirical work or historical research with policy analysis. Cultural Foundations of Education supports interdisciplinary work and students are encouraged to choose courses from across the broad spectrum of Syracuse University’s schools and colleges, including Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the College of Arts and Sciences.

A master’s degree in Cultural Foundations of Education is designed for the student seeking a broad education with disciplinary competence as well as commitments to social purpose and academic excellence.