Curriculum and Instruction

The Doctor of Philosophy degree in curriculum and instruction is a research degree designed to prepare the student to become a scholar who can discover, integrate and apply knowledge, as well as communicate and disseminate it. The intent of the program is to prepare the student to make a significant original contribution to knowledge in a specialized field. The program prepares students in one of the following specialty concentrations: elementary education, English education, mathematics education, science education, social studies education, literacy education or special education. In addition, students may choose from a range of scholarly focus areas including academic and behavioral interventions for diverse learners; early childhood learning and development; informal education; STEM; international-global education; learning technologies and educational psychology; legal and policy issues in education; mixed methods and design-based research; motivation and learning; professional development and educational quality; qualitative research methodologies; research, evaluation, measurement and statistics; social, historical and philosophical foundations of education; social justice and educational equity; and sustainability education. All students — regardless of the specialty concentration and/or areas of scholarly focus — are expected to work with faculty to design programs uniquely suited to their areas of interest.