Doctoral Themes of Study
Doctoral study in the Department of Teaching and Learning focuses on several areas of scholarship and practice. These reflect the strengths and interests of the department’s faculty and the opportunities available among the department’s programs for doctoral students to have mentored learning experiences. The themes are as follows:
- Teaching and teacher education. Across all levels from early childhood to university, including preparatory teacher education and continuing teacher education, and across a variety of teaching fields. The department particularly invites interests in teaching within urban settings, teaching diverse students, the role of content knowledge in teaching, and changing conceptions of teaching and teacher education.
- Educational reform. Including school reform, curriculum reform, and reform of policies that bear on teaching and learning. The department particularly invites interests in the problems of urban education, in designing learning environments that work well for diverse learners, in rethinking curriculum and school designs, and in the role of teacher learning within educational reform. In making admission decisions, the department’s faculty strives for balance across these areas, each year admitting a small number of highly qualified students with interest in each (regardless of the students’ degree preferences).
- Literacies. Across all levels of education and content areas. The department particularly invites interests in early literacy, adolescent and adult literacy, issues in acquiring academic literacy, and the role of culture in literacy.
- Language and culture. The department particularly invites interests in language acquisition and in issues related to education in multilingual and multicultural settings.