Program Information
Who We Are
Our program offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of urban education situated within an analysis of broader social, political, and economic processes that shape schooling and learning. We place a high value on social justice-oriented and public-facing scholarship that bridges theory, research, policy and practice. The Ph.D. in Urban Education is organized around rigorous academic work and critical democratic engagement. The program centers critical theories and practices related to curricula, pedagogies, and policies that foster the analysis and transformation of present-day class, race, gender and language-based inequities within and beyond schools. The program’s stance on social justice is grounded in the powerful and compelling scholarly and teaching work of its faculty, its diverse student body who consistently engage in provocative research and social projects, as well as the growing number of alumni who carry forward their civic responsibilities as scholars, researchers, and educators in the United States and abroad. As members of the City University of New York, we situate our scholarship within New York City schools and communities, while also building connections with practitioners and researchers across the country and the world.
What We Study
The course of study within the doctoral program in Urban Education consists of four core courses, post-core requirements including quantitative and qualitative research methods, and elective courses based on students’ research interests. Our courses are grounded in diverse pedagogical and theoretical approaches and emphasize the study of curricula and classrooms, schools and urban communities, and methodologies and policies across historical and political contexts.
After completing their required courses, students work with their advisors and other program faculty to develop a unique and rigorous course of study that will inform their scholarship as they complete their coursework, take their two required examinations, and develop their dissertation study. As part of our interdisciplinary course of study, students can engage with the robust network of intellectual resources that comprise The Graduate Center, enabling them to access a rich selection of elective courses and to work with research faculty across many relevant partner disciplines, including English, History, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, and Political Science.
Our Community
The Urban Education community provides an intergenerational place for interdisciplinary learning and apprenticeship to academic research. The Graduate Center and program faculty are committed to providing a range of funding opportunities in order to make doctoral-level study possible for admitted students, many of whom already work as teachers and administrators, and many of whom benefit from financial support to complete their degree. Our program has become one of the most competitive in the country, and has retained its practice of admitting and retaining a truly racially and ethnically diverse intellectual community central to our scholarly work in urban education.
Urban Education students run a website on the Academic Commons, which shares additional resources and news for the Urban Education community. Please check out this recent report from the Urban Education Research Collective. More information can be found here: https://www.nycparentspeakout.com/report/
How We Work
Our course sequence is designed to provide opportunities for interdisciplinary study in the context of important research questions based in ongoing dilemmas in schools and societies. After their first-year cohort experience in the colloquium and four core courses, the program provides students with the flexibility to integrate the interdisciplinary foundation they built in the core courses and the colloquium with emerging areas of specialization relevant to their research interests.
The Urban Education community provides an intergenerational place for interdisciplinary learning and apprenticeship to academic research. The Graduate Center and program faculty are committed to providing a range of funding opportunities in order to make doctoral-level study possible for admitted students, many of whom already work as teachers and administrators, and many of whom benefit from financial support to complete their degree. Our program has become one of the most competitive in the country, and has retained its practice of admitting and retaining a truly racially and ethnically diverse intellectual community central to our scholarly work in urban education.
See our curriculum requirements for an outline of students' coursework and exams and dissertation requirements.
