THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Master's Certificate
The University of Chicago offers an opportunity for MA students at the University to pursue a certificate in Education and Society. To qualify for the certificate, students must first apply and be accepted into a Master’s program at the University. Once accepted into such a program, students can declare their intention to complete a certificate in Education and Society. The recommended course of study for this certificate program is the Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS). Students in Master’s programs in the Harris School of Public Policy are also welcome to apply, if the requirements of the Certificate can be completed within the parameters of their given program.
The Education and Society MA Certificate Program builds on the broad expertise of Committee on Education faculty across the University whose work probes questions of fundamental significance to education. Using the tools of the social science disciplines, these faculty work to better understand how institutional and social contexts, notably schools, shape child development and learning and how schools, in turn, shape society. Understanding this process requires an interdisciplinary lens that combines perspectives from multiple social science disciplines. For example, psychologists are interested in individual development, economists study skill formation (or the development of “human capital,”) and sociologists investigate the role of schooling in processes of social stratification. Consequently, a psychologist looking at schooling might see how children gain cognitive skills and develop identities and attitudes toward learning; an economist might think about how incentives shape teacher and student effort and how such effort pays off in skills and labor market returns; and a sociologist would see how school organization shapes social networks, aspirations, and opportunities.
Each of these lenses is valuable, but a deep understanding of the relationship between individual development, the schooling process, and society requires understanding each of these disciplinary frameworks and how they interact. Students in the Education and Society certificate program complete courses in a range of social science fields that regard educational questions from diverse disciplinary perspectives.
Our curriculum offers coursework in three areas: Courses in the Individual Development and Learning area focus on processes of child and youth skill formation, including such questions as: How do children learn to speak, to read, and to reason mathematically? How can classroom instruction promote such learning? How can school organization support such instruction? How do processes of identity formation and mindset development shape student learning? Coursework in the area of Schooling and Society focuses on a different set of questions, related to schools as social institutions: Does schooling increase or reduce social inequality? How do various cultural, family and neighborhood contexts shape the aims, processes and outcomes of education? What are the social functions and purposes of schooling? Finally, courses in Educational Policy and Evaluation focus on strategies for improving schooling and methods for the evaluation of educational interventions, including principles of research design, statistical analysis, and program evaluation. These courses probe questions such as: What works for improving reading instruction? Are charter schools more effective than traditional public schools? What are the best ways to attract and retain talented teachers to work in under-resourced schools?
At the heart of the Education and Society curriculum is a concern with how schools reconcile the tasks of child and youth cognitive development, identity formation, and socialization with the changing role of schooling in society and widespread concerns about social inequality and mobility. The program particularly emphasizes the need to improve schooling for young people growing up in cities, and, drawing on resources from the Urban Education Institute, in Chicago in particular. Completing a certificate in Education and Society will prepare students for PhD study in education or a social science discipline or for professional positions at research institutions, government agencies, or nonprofit organizations.
Students who complete the Education and Society certificate program undertake a program of study comprised of four graduate courses, including the following requirements, in addition to fulfilling the requirements of the Master’s program in which they are enrolled.
Students enrolled in the Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences should note that courses taken for this certificate may also be used for the MAPSS requirement of taking at least one social science methods course; many of our courses in the ‘Educational Policy and Evaluation’ strand are able to fulfill this MAPSS requirement (in addition to counting towards our own course requirements), and are denoted as such in our course listings.
Schooling and Social Inequality
This course introduces students to foundational concepts and empirical studies that probe the relationships between schooling, social organization, and social inequality.
A minimum of three additional education-related courses
Students select a minimum of three additional courses from a list of approved courses on the Committee on Education website.
Students are required to earn at least a B grade in courses taken for the Education and Society Certificate. Classes taken Pass/Fail may count toward Certificate course requirements, but a grade of Pass must be earned, and no more than one course taken P/F may be counted.
Education Workshop
The Committee on Education conducts a weekly Workshop on Education Lecture Series, which features both faculty and student presentations. Students in the Education and Society certificate program are required to consistently attend the Education Workshop presentations (both faculty and student-sessions), over a period of at least two quarters during their year of study.
Faculty presenters are researchers from the University of Chicago and other institutions who discuss cutting-edge research and methodological advances for understanding the interplay of human development and the social institution of schooling. Student presenters are COE-affiliated students who use the workshop to present works-in-progress, practice conference presentations, or discuss papers/chapters from their thesis or dissertation work.
The Workshop provides a common intellectual foundation for students and faculty, who have the opportunity to hear presentations of new work by renowned faculty and promising emerging scholars, prior to publication.
Education Research Symposium
All EDSO MA students will present their research at an Education and Society symposium to be held in the spring quarter.
A major research paper (typically an MA thesis) with a substantial focus on education
Students pursuing the certificate must write an MA thesis or other major research paper, focusing on education-related issues using the tools of the social sciences. Capstone papers do not fulfill this requirement.
The Education and Society Certificate Program offers students the opportunity to participate in initiatives alongside researchers and practitioners in a variety of projects, centers, labs, and organizations at the University, and to develop their MA thesis based on this experience.
Research sites that participants may want to consider participating with include: the UChicago Consortium on School Research, UChicago STEM Education, educational programs within the Office of Civic Engagement, the Urban Labs, the TMW Center for Early Learning and Public Health, or any number of ongoing faculty-led projects.
The recommended course of study for the MA Certificate is the Master Arts Program in the Social Sciences, but students currently enrolled in any MA program at the University are welcome to apply.
Applications received by June 1 will receive priority consideration. If you have questions about completing the certificate in upcoming academic years, please contact Lisa Rosen, Director of Instructional Programs, at rosen@uchicago.edu. Students currently admitted to any MA program at the University can apply.
- MAPSS Students: Apply through the MAPSS admissions portal.
- Harris Students: Apply through the UChicago Grad portal.
Students in other MA programs should contact Lisa Rosen for instructions on applying.
CHDV 33499. Who Am I? Identity Development, Race, and Intersectionality
Instructor: Onnie Rogers
This course explores the sociocultural contexts of youth development with a focus identity development across childhood and adolescence. Students will learn key theories of identity, drawing on intersectionality as a framework for interpreting societal inequalities that shape developmental outcomes. Students will engage in class discussions, weekly reflections, and complete applied assignments to demonstrate knowledge of course concepts.
CHDV 33510. Blooming, Buzzing Confusion
Instructor: Marisa Casillas
This course examines the social and cognitive mechanisms that drive language learning in the first few years of life. Nearly all children learn the language(s) of their community, despite the fact that human languages and caregiving practices offer immense diversity around the globe. What enables the learning system to adapt so robustly to the environment it finds itself in? We discuss the evidence for and against multiple factors that have been proposed to support language development across the world's communities. We also critically examine how these ideas intersect with current deficit models of language learning. It is expected that, by the end of the course, students will grasp the basic mechanisms proposed to underlie early language learning.
CHDV 33100. Human Language and Interaction
Instructor: Marisa Casillas
Language may be learned by individuals, but we most often use it for communication between groups. How is it that we manage to transmit our internal thoughts to others' minds? How is it that we can understand what others mean to express to us? Whether we are greeting a passerby, ordering a meal, or debating politics, there are a number of invisible processes that bring language to life in the space between individuals. This course investigates the social and cognitive processes that enable us to successfully communicate with others. The theories we cover are built on observations of adult language use and child development in multiple cultural settings, taking inspiration also from non-human animal communication. It is expected that, by the end of the course, students will be able to explain the limitations of language for communication and will be able to elaborate on a number of social and other cognitive processes that critically support communicative language use.
CHDV 40315. The Construction of Education Inequality: Policy and Practice
Instructor: Micere Keels
The problems confronting urban schools are bound to the social, economic, and political conditions of the urban environments in which schools reside. Thus, this course will explore social, economic, and political issues, with an emphasis on issues of race and class as they have affected the distribution of equal educational opportunities in urban schools. We will focus on the ways in which family, school, and neighborhood characteristics intersect to shape the divergent outcomes of low- and middle-income children residing with any given neighborhood. Students will tackle an important issue affecting the residents and schools in one Chicago neighborhood. This course is part of the College Course Cluster: Urban Design.
EDSO 33005. Schooling and Social Inequality
Instructor: Lisa Rosen
How and why do educational outcomes and experiences vary across student populations? What role do schools play in a society’s system of stratification? How do schools both contribute to social mobility and to the reproduction of the prevailing social order? This course examines these questions through the lens of social and cultural theory, engaging current academic debates on the causes and consequences of social inequality in educational outcomes. We will engage these debates by studying foundational and emerging theories and examining empirical research on how social inequalities are reproduced or ameliorated through schools. Through close readings of anthropological and sociological case studies of schooling in the U.S, students will develop an understanding of the structural forces and cultural processes that produce inequality in neighborhoods and schools, how they contribute to unequal opportunities, experiences, and achievement outcomes for students along lines of race/ethnicity, class, gender, and immigration status, and how students themselves navigate and interpret this unequal terrain. We will cover such topics as neighborhood and school segregation; peer culture; social networks; elite schooling; the interaction between home, society and educational institutions; and dynamics of assimilation for students from immigrant communities.
EDSO 33002. Schooling and Identity
Instructor: Lisa Rosen
This course examines the dynamic relations between schooling and identity. We will explore how schools both enable and constrain the identities available to students and the consequences of this for academic achievement. We will examine these relations from multiple disciplinary perspectives, applying psychological, anthropological, sociological, and critical theories to understanding how students not only construct identities for themselves within schools, but also negotiate the identities imposed on them by others. Topics will include the role of peer culture, adult expectations, school practices and enduring social structures in shaping processes of identity formation in students and how these processes influence school engagement and achievement. We will consider how these processes unfold at all levels of schooling, from preschool through college, and for students who navigate a range of social identities, from marginalized to privileged.
SOCI 30112. Applications of Hierarchical Linear Methods
Instructor: Stephen Raudenbush
A number of diverse methodological problems such as correlates of change, analysis of multi-level data, and certain aspects of meta-analysis share a common feature-a hierarchical structure. The hierarchical linear model offers a promising approach to analyzing data in these situations. This course will survey the methodological literature in this area, and demonstrate how the hierarchical linear model can be applied to a range of problems.
CHDV 30102. Introduction to Causal Inference
Instructor: Guanglei Hong
This course is designed for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students from the social sciences, education, public health science, public policy, social service administration, and statistics who are involved in quantitative research and are interested in studying causality. The goal of this course is to equip students with basic knowledge of and analytic skills in causal inference. Topics for the course will include the potential outcomes framework for causal inference; experimental and observational studies; identification assumptions for causal parameters; potential pitfalls of using ANCOVA to estimate a causal effect; propensity score based methods including matching, stratification, inverse-probability-of-treatment-weighting (IPTW), marginal mean weighting through stratification (MMWS), and doubly robust estimation; the instrumental variable (IV) method; regression discontinuity design (RDD) including sharp RDD and fuzzy RDD; difference in difference (DID) and generalized DID methods for cross-section and panel data, and fixed effects model. Intermediate Statistics or equivalent is a prerequisite. This course is a pre-requisite for “Advanced Topics in Causal Inference” and “Mediation, moderation, and spillover effects.
MAPS 36007. Overview of Quantitative Methods in the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Instructor: Yanyan Sheng
The course is designed to present the logic and offer an overview of a wide range of methods developed for rigorous quantitative inquiry in social and behavioral sciences. Students will be familiarized with various research designs, measurement, and analytic strategies, will understand the inherent connections between different statistical methods, and will become aware of the strengths and limitations of each. In addition, this course provides a gateway to the numerous offerings of quantitative methods courses. It is suitable for undergraduate and graduate students at any stage of their respective programs.