Master's in Education Program

• Critical Studies of Race, Class, and Gender: Prof. Derek Van Rheenen (dvr@berkeley.edu)

Our faculty engage in interdisciplinary analysis to understand the functions, limits, and possibilities of schooling. In particular, race, class, and gender relations are social forces that inform and shape the organization of schools and various educational spaces including formal and informal learning communities. Our faculty also examine the transformative functions of language and literacy keeping in constant view their potential to effect social change and create more just societies. We explore the role of schooling in building and sustaining a democratic society in the face of social inequality, economic restructuring, and changing social relations in the nation-state. Examples include the political activities of students and teachers in and out of school, the pedagogy of radical social movements, the root causes and effects of white supremacy and settler colonialism in education, the knowledge valued as the official curriculum, policies concerning discipline or funding, and disparities between educational contexts and in learning outcomes.

Cultural Studies of Sport in Education is a concentration within the Critical Studies of Class, Race, and Gender cluster. The CSSE concentration examines the ways in which institutionalized physical activity embodies and reflects social meanings and identities. The social practice of sport provides a space in which dominant discourses of race, gender, sexuality, (dis)ability and social class are reproduced or resisted. As these physical activities become commercialized and embedded within educational institutions, individuals must navigate a nuanced and conflicted terrain as they participate and perform in sports. This Master’s specialization fosters the capacity of students to delve into the intersection of athletics and academics within the educational system.

* Please note: When completing the online application, please indicate your interest in this concentration in the text box and/or Statement of Purpose.

• Language, Literacy, and Culture: Prof. Laura Sterponi (sterponi@berkeley.edu)

Our faculty investigate language and literacy practices in relation to sociocultural, historical, technological, and ideological formations. In their research and teaching, our faculty members represent interdisciplinary areas of study across the humanities, social sciences, and education. We expand beyond traditional disciplinary divisions, in theory and methods, to nurture collaborative and participatory approaches at the intersection of research and action. Our faculty and students conduct research in local and international contexts and study language and literacy in a wide range of institutional and informal settings, including classrooms, homes, healthcare centers, community organizations, and online environments. As a scholarly community, we advocate for cultural and linguistic diversity in research, practice, and policy, with special emphasis on access, equity and innovation in education. Our vision of language, literacy, and culture affirms language and literacy education as crucially important to social justice and participatory democracy.

• Learning Sciences and Human Development: Prof. Marcia C. Linn (mclinn@berkeley.edu)

Faculty study, design and participate in transformative approaches to individual and social development, approaches within schools and classrooms, and across diverse sites and contexts in communities, workplaces and social movements. Students will examine how to promote equity and honor socio-cultural and linguistic diversity; transform schools, technology, and other educational spaces; support teachers as learners; and foster promising social futures for all youth.

• Policy, Politics, and Leadership: Prof. Gina Garcia (ginaanngarcia@berkeley.edu)

Faculty delve into the broad landscape of influences — namely, history, social and economic policy, and politics — and the organizational features of the institutions that sustain the nation’s diverse array of local schools and districts. Faculty conduct both social science research and teach in the economics, sociology, history, and politics of education. Together, faculty hold a commitment to fine empirical work — whether qualitative or quantitative — that illuminates the motivations, values, and practices shaping common cause and stakeholder conflict as we try to improve public education.

• Social Research Methodologies: Prof. Mark R. Wilson (markw@berkeley.edu)

Our faculty develop and apply state-of-the-art qualitative and quantitative methods for research, assessment, and program evaluation in education. We have expertise ranging from design-based research, ethnography and interviewing, to statistics, measurement, and data science. Students will learn the theory underpinning social research methods and how to apply them in sophisticated and innovative ways to inform education policy and practice.