Normative perspectives assist students in examining and explaining education in light of value orientations and commitments. These perspectives help reveal the inevitable presence of normative influences in educational thought and practice. Students are encouraged to probe the nature of assumptions about the appropriate forms and purposes of education and thus to examine the value-laden nature of educational theory and practice. Students are also encouraged to develop a well-argued, normatively justified worldview on educational matters.

Interpretive perspectives use concepts and theories developed within the humanities and the social sciences to assist students in examining, understanding and explaining education within different contexts. The interpretive perspective promotes analysis of the intent, meaning and effects of educational institutions. Interpretive perspectives attend particularly to the diverse contexts within which educational phenomena occur, and to how interpretation can vary with different historical, philosophical and cultural perspectives.

Critical  perspectives build on normative and interpretive perspectives, using them to help students develop inquiry skills, question educational assumptions and practices and identify contradictions and inconsistencies among social and educational values, policies and practices. In particular, critical perspectives engage students in clarifying their own value orientations and employing them to assess educational beliefs, policies and practices in light of their origins, influences and consequences.

ECS students focus on a wide range of contexts of learning: schools, out-of-school programs, NGOs, families, peer groups, media, neighborhoods and communities, both within the US and internationally. Students can choose from among a range of substantive areas of concentration: sociocultural and philosophical foundations of education; classroom discourse; race, ethnicity, class and gender inequality; education, modernity, globalization and development; schooling in community contexts; critical pedagogy; and comparative and international education. Research Projects focus on a wide variety of phenomena such as: the relationship between social structure, power and schooling; the workings of nationalism, citizenship and sovereignty among minority youth populations; racial, class, gender and sexual relations and hierarchies among youth and adult learners; immigration, diaspora, multiculturalism and identity formation across families and schools; the relationship among language, culture and identity formation in classroom discourse; the development of social identities in classrooms and other local contexts; media literacy, social movements and globalization; national state formation and teacher identity; women, third world development and empowerment through NGOs; international development, children’s rights and western conceptions of childhood; colonialism, modernity and globalization in education; neoliberal state formation, welfare reform and educational governance; education and citizenship in conflict and post-conflict situations.

The program places particular emphasis on providing rigorous training in ethnographic methods, and many students choose to study discourse analysis as well. Students often combine their educational studies with significant coursework in a discipline of their choosing, such as anthropology, sociology, history or philosophy. The masters degree program emphasizes training in ethnographic research methods and prepares students for doctoral study and careers in research institutes, educational institutions and non-profit organizations. The doctoral program prepares students for research careers within universities, research institutes, government agencies and non-profit organizations. 
  

• Penn GSE Application
• Application Fee
• Curriculum Vitae or Resumé
• Score Report from the Graduate Records Examination (as reported by ETS)
• Statement of Purpose
• Three letters of recommendation
• Academic transcripts from all undergraduate and graduate institutions
• International applicants must also supply the score report from the TOEFL or IELTS examinations
• Writing Sample (strongly preferred)

Application Deadline

Applications for the M.S.Ed. degree are reviewed on a rolling basis until the degree program is full. Admission is for the fall term only. Both full-time and part-time study may be accommodated. The Ph.D. program accepts applications for full-time study for the fall semester only. Completed applications are due by December 15, 2007.

Ben-Porath, Sigal, Ph.D., Tel Aviv University, Philosophy
Kathleen Hall, Ph.D., University of Chicago, Anthropology
Ritty A. Lukose, Ph.D., University of Chicago, Anthropology
Stanton E. F. Wortham, Ph.D., University of Chicago, Human Development

For more information please contact us or call 1-877-PENNGSE (736-6473).