Social & Cultural Foundations in Education

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   Program Description   

The Master of Arts in Social and Cultural Foundations in Education is an interdisciplinary academic program designed to appeal to students seeking alternatives to more specialized or technical programs of study in education.  This program is designed to attract teachers, administrators and individuals with bachelor degrees who have a broad interest in educational issues and who may not be professional educators.  We anticipate that students pursuing this degree will come from a variety of professional backgrounds involving different forms of educational work such as media, foundations, museums, community organizations, higher education, K-12 and other forms of educational work.  In addition, our program should address a variety of reasons for pursuing a Master's Degree in Social and Cultural Foundations in Education that include personal and professional enhancement, research for private foundations, adult education and training, preparation for doctoral work for a university teaching career, higher education administration and others.

Distinctive DePaul Features

  • The Master's Degree program provides students the opportunity to study education, not only as schooling, but broadly as a dynamic cultural and political force that unfolds in a wide range of shifting and overlapping sites of learning. 
  • Students will consider education as a dynamic process that shapes social identities and social life; as well as the learning of values and beliefs, all of which are central to how people make cognitive and emotional investments and act in the world. 
  • Education is a significant force in creating, maintaining, and challenging assumptions of neutrality, and hierarchies of race, ethnicity, gender, class and sexual difference.  From this perspective, education is an indispensable tool for creating conditions for social justice and democratic life. 
  • Students investigate the pedagogical and cultural conditions necessary for supporting the flourishing of human agency and the redefinition of human engagement in social life.

The EPSR faculty brings expertise from a variety of disciplines and fields within educational policy studies: the sociology of education, the philosophy of education, the history of education, the psychology of education/human development, critical pedagogy, cultural studies, feminist studies, urban studies, critical race studies, research methods and more.  The faculty also has a diverse range of interests in areas such as: globalization; social theory and social construction of knowledge; the role of education in the production of inequalities or race, gender, class, sexuality and language; social situated theories of learning and teaching; the role of education in the construction of culture and social identities.

Given the disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of education in this degree program, students have the opportunity with the approval of their faculty advisor to take 24 hours of elective courses outside of the Social and Cultural Foundations in Education program as well as the School of Education. 

Choices of electives include, but are not limited to, courses in the departments and programs such as Communications, Philosophy, and Women's Studies, American Studies, International Studies, Public Policy and Sociology.

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   Degree Requirements

There are two program options for completion of the Social and Cultural Foundations in Education (SCFE) MA Degree:

Thesis Option
  • 52 quarter hours or 13 courses including thesis are required for completion of the MA in Social and Cultural Foundations in Education
  • 20 quarter hours or 5 courses are electives and are to be completed outside of the SCFE program. Of the electives,8 quarters hours or 2 courses  are to be completed in the School of Education but outside of the SCFE program and 12 quarter hours or 3 courses outside of the School of Educaton.
  • In addition to core courses and electives, 4 quarter hours or one course is required for the completion of the master's thesis
  • For students wanting more flexibility, course electives can be tailored to address professional and research issues and interests. Students looking for more structure can cluster their elective courses to pursue a particular focus within education to include curriculum studies, educational leadership, human development and learning or public service.
Capstone Option
  • 52 quarter hours or 13 courses including thesis are required for completion of the MA in Social and Cultural Foundations in Education
  • 20 quarter hours or 5 courses are electives and are to be completed outside of the SCFE program. Of the electives,8 quarters hours or 2 courses  are to be completed in the School of Education but outside of the SCFE program and 12 quarter hours or 3 courses outside of the School of Educaton.
  • Students will be required to complete two additional elective courses (8 additional credit hours) and a capstone paper (with the corresponding no credit capstone course) for a total of 60 quarter hours or 16 courses instead of completing a thesis with the corresponding thesis course.

The additional electives must not include any courses that count towards teacher certification. The topic of the capstone paper will be designed by the student in consultation with a faculty advisor. 

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