M.S. Program of Study

The Masters of Science degree in Sociocultural and International Development Education Studies (SIDES) focuses on understanding social and cultural processes in education, and on preparing students to work in multicultural environments within the United States and internationally. The program has the flexibility to prepare its students to work in any of three possible areas based on student interest and prior experience. (1) Onoing work as teachers and school administrators in multicultural settings. (2) Work internationally in education with non-governmental and governmental organizations, international development agencies, and international exchange programs. (3) Work in domestic non-profit, community-based service, corporate, governmental, and non-governmental organizations with an educational mission.

Generally a Ph.D. degree is needed for longer-term positions with international development agencies, and for university academic positions. Up to a maximum of 30 credit hours from the Masters program may be taken into account in developing a SIDES Ph.D. program of study. A select group of students completing the Masters program can be admitted into the SIDES Ph.D. program.

Master's students would enroll in:

SIDES Core Courses (6 credits)

EDF 5850 International Development Education (3)
EDF 5935 Multicultural Education (3)

Disciplinary Core (9 credits)

Select three of the following:

EDF 5517 History of Education in the United States (3)
EDF 5630 Sociology of Education (3)
EDF 5612 Education and Culture (3)
EDF 5543 Introduction to Philosophy of Education (3)
EDF 5625 Education and Economic Development (3) or
EDF 5626 Economics of Education (3)

Practitioner's Skills (10 credits)

EDF 5400 Basic Descriptive and Inferential Statistics (4) or
EDF 5401 General Linear Modeling (4)
EDF 6475 Qualitative Methods in Educational Research (3) or
EDF 5464 Qualitative Evaluation Methods (3)
EDF 5461 Intro to Program Evaluation (3)

Electives (12 credits, minimum of 3 outside of the college)

Students may apply their elective credits to courses offered within or outside of SIDES. The courses selected may be diverse, or a student may opt to develop an elective specialization in a specific area of interest. Elective specializations are illustrated by, but are not limited to the following:

Advanced Research Methodology: qualitative or quantitative methodologies
Program Evaluation: a certificate in program evaluation is possible as part of the elective specialization
Area Studies: geographical areas, regions, and/or languages
Social Science Discipline: anthropology, economics, history, philosophy, psychology, or sociology
Professional Emphasis: teacher education, educational leadership, educational policy, multicultural education, etc.

SIDES offers a variety of elective courses, including special topics courses under the code EDF5935 that change from one semester to the next. Students may also take additional disciplinary core courses as electives. A sampling of SIDES electives is listed below:

EDF 5853 Comparative Education Policy
EDF 5935 Migrant and Immigrant Education
EDF 5935 Education for Marginalized Communities
EDF 5935 Religious Diversity in Education
EDF 5892 National Curriculum Development
EDF5706 Gender and Education