EdD in Curriculum, Culture, and Communities (3Cs) - Hybrid & In-Person

Our dedicated Teaching and Learning Faculty are experts in their fields who will support students throughout each stage of the program.

PROGRAM CO-DIRECTORS

• David Ensminger, PhD
• Seungho Moon, EdD

FACULTY EXPERTISE

• Curriculum foundations-practice-policies
• Field-based teacher education and teacher advocacy
• Collaborative school-community partnerships
• Participatory action research and evaluation practices.
• Language, literacy, and culture
• Culturally responsive practice and curriculum reform
• Instructional design and teaching practices
• Spirituality & transformative curriculum leadership
• Disciplinary expertise: Math, Science, ELA, Social Studies, Elementary Ed, Special Ed, and Early Childhood

Students will develop understandings of curriculum, pedagogy, and policy and apply knowledge on transformative curriculum and pedagogy for innovative policy in the local, state, national, and international educational contexts to advocate with and for students, families, and communities.

Students will understand that effective educators comprehend the historical, political, socioeconomic, and cultural realities and funds of knowledge of local communities as well as relationships, practices, and systems. Further, students will understand that effective educators seek to engage multiple stakeholders toward creating that promote equity and social justice of society’s most vulnerable groups.

Students will understand and use appropriate and rigorous research methods (e.g., qualitative, mixed, quantitative) and research types ( e.g., basic, action, evaluation) to investigate critical questions that contribute to the development and improvement in instructional practices, transformative curriculum, and the improvement of relationships across school, community and university settings. Emphasis will be placed on the use of participatory and collaborative research approaches.

Students will understand and apply an approach to language and literacy that is heteroglossic, a view of language and literacy as dynamic, and an understanding of the acquisition of language and literacy as a process that occurs within and is influenced by cultural systems and structures including (but not limited to) those of the family, the school, and the surrounding community.

Students will understand that effective teaching and learning is situated in local and globalized communities and incorporates assets of students, families, and broader communities into learning. Students will understand that transformative learning engages in collaborative, mutually beneficial, and sustainable relationships among school, communities, and multiple stakeholders to ensure the academic success and social & emotional learning of all students.

Students will develop their ability to apply principles and practices of a social justice lens in relation theories and practices of schools and communities by focusing on transformative teaching and learning, university-school-community collaborations, mitigating inequities and disrupting power structures and practices that have contributed to the marginalization of communities and people around the world through research and pedagogy.

Typically, full-time students can complete the coursework between two and three academic years depending on summer enrollment. The dissertation takes another 1.5 to 2 years. Assuming normal progress, it is reasonable to expect part-time students who have completed all prerequisites and enroll in six semester hours during each Fall, Spring, and Summer semester could complete coursework in approximately three academic years and dissertation in approximately 2 years.  Time for degree completion, including the dissertation, is four to six years.

With the advisor’s approval, students may apply credits from a master's degree or prior coursework. The three scenarios include:

Doctoral students in 3Cs (Curriculum, Culture, and Communities) are required to maintain the status of continuous enrollment during their program of studies. This means that during each semester of each academic year (excluding Summer Sessions), each student must enroll in at least one course. A formal leave of absence may be granted upon request and the approval of the School of Education’s Assistant Dean of Student Academic Affairs.

A comprehensive assessment is required. Specific requirements will be shared with all students.

The requirements for doctoral candidacy are 1) successful completion of all specifically required coursework; 2) successful completion of all comprehensive assessment, 3) approval of the dissertation proposal by the approved dissertation committee and Institutional Review Board (IRB).

• CIEP 440 Critical Investigations in the Field of Curriculum 
• CIEP 469 Issues that Shape Teaching and Learning in Urban Schools and Communities
• CIEP 518 Theories and Practices of Partnerships
• CIEP 524 Privilege, Power, and Possibilities: Teaching for Social Justice in Schools and Communities

• CIEP 521 Curriculum Theory and Research with Schools and Communities: Positionalities, Perspectives, and Transformations
• CIEP 522 Curriculum Policy across Schools and Communities
• CIEP 523 Curriculum Improvement and School-Community Change

• CIEP 488 Participatory Action Research (PAR) in Schools and Communities
• RMTD 420*: Educational Research I: Building a Body of Evidence Using Qualitative Methods (3)
• RMTD 421**: Educational Research II: Building a Body of Evidence Using Quantitative Methods (3)

* RMTD 400: is a prerequisite for RMTD 420
** RMTD 404: is a prerequisite of RMTD 421

The total of 15 semester hours should be completed with advisor's approval among recommended elective courses.

• CIEP 415 Models of Instruction
• CIEP 447 Technology-Enhanced and Online Teaching
• CIEP 442 Culturally Sustainable Curriculum Development & Implementation or
• CIEP 470 Principles of Instructional Design
• CIEP 473 Instructional Leadership for Multicultural Schools (Rome and Chicago)
• CIEP 509 Social Justice Multilingual Leaders
• CIEP 540 Special Topic in Curriculum 
• Other SOE graduate courses