Cultural Foundations

The Ph.D degree in Cultural Foundations from Kent State University explores education through a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives: philosophy of education, history of education, sociology of education, comparative/international education, anthropology of education, gender studies, multicultural studies and religious studies. 

Students examine the social contexts of education, with particular emphasis on critical questions concerning structural inequalities and considerations of access to education, distribution of educational opportunity and successful navigation of educational systems; normative considerations about the purposes of education; and interpretive understandings of the nature of educational experience and the transformative potential of education.

Students in the doctoral program work closely with faculty to generate dissertation topics that seek to add something new to existing scholarship in their chosen area of study within the field of education.

Graduates have the knowledge, critical understandings and interpretive skills to analyze and assess educational theories, policies and practices, as well as to lead and promote innovative practices in a range of educational settings and social contexts. Recent graduates have embarked on new careers or been promoted in their existing institutions in governmental agencies, K-12 school systems, institutions of higher education and nongovernmental organizations, both nationally and internationally.

Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the  Cultural Foundations Cultural Foundations program from Kent State University Kent State University will be able to:

• Analyze the social, cultural, economic and political conditions that shape education in domestic and international contexts.

• Analyze pressing social issues related to education from a foundational point of view.

• Critically engage a range of theoretical approaches to understanding education.

• Examine dynamics of social differentiation, power and injustice related to education in and out of school.

• Theorize education’s contribution to social justice.

• Develop facility with the range of social science and humanities-oriented research methods and modes of analysis in the field of social foundations of education.

• Conduct independent research resulting in an original contribution to knowledge in the field of cultural foundations of education.

• Bring foundational research to bear on the intellectual and organizational aspects of their professions, schools and communities.

Courses include:

• Humanities-oriented Research in Education
• Doctoral Residency Seminar
• Dissertation 
• Variable Topic Workshop in Cultural Foundations
• Classics in Philosophy of Education
• Multicultural Theories and Scholarship in Education
• Contemporary Philosophy of Education