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School of Education

Educators are liberators because knowledge is transformative.

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Education, Society, and Culture

Education, Society, and Culture Ph.D. Program

UCR Ford Fellows in front of Bell Tower

The Education, Society, and Culture doctoral program provides you with theoretical and methodological preparation supporting scholarly inquiry on the historical, social, racial, cultural, and institutional factors affecting education, especially those that affect access and opportunity and contribute to educational inequality. A federally-designated Hispanic-serving research university, UCR’s location, in the heart of inland Southern California, will provide you with rigorous methodological and conceptual tools to engage in research on critical issues in K-16 education. You will work closely with distinguished professors on research projects exploring solutions to our nation’s most pressing educational challenges, providing you with the knowledge and experience to become an educational researcher or university professor.

Specialization Overview

Overview

  • Start Term: Fall only
  • Program Length: Approximately 5 years
  • Units: 60 minimum
  • Format: In-person instruction on Riverside campus
  • Schedule: Each class meets once a week 4-7pm (Monday-Thursday)
  • 94% of students receive multi-year fellowships

Steps to Degree Completion

  1. Complete coursework
  2. Written qualifying exam
  3. Oral qualifying exam/pre-proposal
  4. Proposal approved by dissertation committee
  5. Dissertation and final defense

Students admitted to the Ph.D. program are often offered a multi-year fellowship which covers tuition and health insurance and provides a stipend and/or paycheck during the academic year. It is recommended that students complete the program full time to meet the fellowship requirements working as a Teaching Assistant (TA) or Graduate Student Researcher (GSR). These duties require students to be available Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for 15-20 hours per week.

Quarterly costs may be viewed here

Faculty research areas include:

  • Critical race theory
  • Educational equity/inequality
  • Gender and education
  • History of education
  • Language and literacy
  • Race in schooling
  • Teacher education
  • Youth of color

A complete list of faculty research areas can be found here, and SOE’s Centers, Programs, and Labs can be found here.

Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice
Dr. Rita Kohli is a co-founder and co-director for ITOC, and serves as an Associate Professor in the Education, Society and Culture Department. ITOC is on-going critical professional development space designed to support wellbeing, strengthen racial literacy, and cultivate the racial justice leadership capacities of teachers of Color who work in K-12 public schools that serve students of Color.  A unique collaboration between the disciplines of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership, and Ethnic Studies, this national conference rigorously selects and supports approximately 150 ITOC Fellows each year.
 
Prison Education Initiative
Dr. Amos Lee, Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Education, Society and Culture Department, developed the prison education initiative which offers a complete degree pathway inside a prison space. The main objective of the initiative is to provide a complete BA pathway for incarcerated students. The goal is to admit incarcerated students with enough community college unit hours to be able to have them complete their UCR degree within two years inside Norco CRC.
 
Graduate Research Conference 
Dr. Alice Lee, Assistant Professor, created the Graduate Research Conference (GRC) in 2023 to answer the call for researchers to uncover injustices and participate in re-imaginings of equity through scholarship spanning civic learning, language diversity, higher education policies, programs, and reform, mental health in schools, K-12 schooling, and the invisibilization of dis/ability studies. SOE graduate students are invited to share the vast array of work being produced in our communities that is, in many ways, already grappling with the injustices produced and reproduced in our education system.

  


Curriculum

The full-time program is offered on a quarter calendar beginning in Fall. Students typically complete two years of course work, including required methods and theory courses and electives, followed by written and oral exams, before completing their dissertation research and defending their dissertation.

Curriculum Overview


Career Opportunities

Recent graduates are:

  • Researchers in Higher Education Institutions
  • Program Managers of Youth Organizations
  • K-12 School Administrators

Alumni are also faculty members at:

  • University of Nevada, Las Vegas 
  • California State University, Dominguez Hills
  • California State University, Long Beach
  • California State University, Stanislaus
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