8. Program Concentrations:

Curriculum Studies in Education

Policy Studies in Education

 

Students will apply for admission to the program in a specific Concentration Area, either Curriculum Studies in Education or Policy Studies in Education. (They may petition to change this concentration prior to but not after completing the First Examination.) In consultation with their Advisors, and after completion of the Core with their Studies Committee, students will then select at least one advanced course in quantitative and statistical methods and one in qualitative-interpretive methods, from among those offered by the existing doctoral programs (see sample list at the end of this section). These courses will be selected so as to provide analytical techniques appropriate to each student's own emerging research interests. Students will then complete approximately 21 credits of elective courses, chosen from lists of recommended courses offered at the Graduate Center across many programs and from reading courses and special topics courses under the supervision of a member of the doctoral faculty (in Curriculum and Policy Studies in Urban Education or in another program, with the approval of their Committee and the program or instructor offering the course).

In both concentrations students will be required to pass both a First and Second Examination, as well as all other requirements, to be advanced to candidacy for the degree. The First Examination will cover the curriculum of the Core courses, and the Second Examination more specifically that of the course of studies in the student's concentration area approved by the Studies Committee.

Within the Curriculum Studies concentration, two Options will be available:

Arts, Humanities, and Social Studies Option
Mathematics, Science, and Technology Option

Students will elect an Option no later than upon completion of the Core, and most will do so before that time as they begin to take relevant elective courses and attend the Area Colloquia of interest to them (see Section 9 below) even during their first year. Students electing these Options will attend specialized Area Seminars (section 9) in which they will acquaint themselves, under faculty guidance, with the current research issues and themes in, for example, arts education or science education curriculum studies at an advanced level and begin to articulate the scope and form of their dissertation research.

Following successful completion of the Second Examination and approval of a thesis topic, students will normally participate in a Dissertation Seminar in which there will be an opportunity for co-ordination and mutual support among students whose research projects may have bearing on one another, even across Concentration or Option lines. For example several dissertations may all examine different curriculum and policy issues within the same school district, or historical and contemporary contexts of the same population of students in the public schools, or the different viewpoints of teachers in different subject fields to policy and resource distribution questions under the new school-based management schemes. It is our belief that mutual support and collaboration among students at the dissertation stage is of great value and not often enough emphasized in formal programs of doctoral studies. This approach also continues our fundamental theme of the interdependence of curricular and policy research issues into the dissertation research itself.

Preliminary working documents have been developed for each concentration and option. During the period of development of the full Program Proposal the Participating Faculty (see section 11) and others invited to join three specialized Faculty Advisory Groups will formulate detailed descriptions, policies, and priorities for each concentration and option. Included in their reports will be lists of specific courses in other doctoral programs which have been selected as appropriate electives for each concentration and option in consultation with the Executive Officers of the relevant programs. The Advisory groups will also make recommendations regarding more specific admissions policies for each area, student recruitment, priorities for the development of new elective courses, and essential library resources needed to support each concentration and option.

The three Faculty Advisory Groups are:

Advisory Group on Curriculum Studies in Arts, Humanities, and Social Studies Education
Advisory Group on Curriculum Studies in Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education
Advisory Group on Educational Policy Studies and Policy Analysis

Each group consists of members of the Participating Faculty, including both specialists in the discipline of Education and those from the partner disciplines relevant to the particular concentration and option, and other invited members of the CUNY faculty whose advice and expertise will contribute to the work of the group.