Graduate Courses

Instructor: Micere Keels  |  M 9:30 AM -12:20 PM

The problems confronting urban schools are bound to the social, economic, and political conditions of the urban environments in which schools reside. Thus, this course will explore social, economic, and political issues, with an emphasis on issues of race and class as they have affected the distribution of equal educational opportunities in urban schools. We will focus on the ways in which family, school, and neighborhood characteristics intersect to shape the divergent outcomes of low- and middle-income children residing with any given neighborhood. Students will tackle an important issue affecting the residents and schools in one Chicago neighborhood. 

Instructor: Leoandra Rogers | W 9:30 AM - 12:20 PM 

This seminar examines adolescent identity development by listening to and learning from Black girls. We will discuss research and literature about and by Black girls (and women) to articulate how identities are formed, the contexts in which identities unfold, and the strategies used to resist oppression and promote healthy development. The course focuses on how the ideas of identity, intersectionality, and intervention are conceptualized, operationalized, and applied in scholarship with Black girls.

Instructor: Melinh Lai  |  T R 2:00 – 3:20 PM

What is the relationship between physical processes in the brain and body and the processes of thought and consciousness that constitute our mental life? Philosophers and others have puzzled over this question for millennia. Many have concluded it to be intractable. In recent decades, the field of cognitive science–encompassing philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, computer science, linguistics, and other disciplines–has proposed a new form of answer. The driving idea is that the interaction of the mental and the physical may be understood via a third level of analysis: that of the computational. This course offers a critical introduction to the elements of this approach, and surveys some of the alternative models and theories that fall within it. Readings are drawn from a range of historical and contemporary sources in philosophy, psychology, linguistics, and computer science.

Instructor: Lisa Rosen  |  W 10:30 AM - 1:20 PM

How and why do educational outcomes and experiences vary across student populations? What role do schools play in a society’s system of stratification? How do schools both contribute to social mobility and to the reproduction of the prevailing social order? This course examines these questions through the lens of social and cultural theory, engaging current academic debates on the causes and consequences of social inequality in educational outcomes. We will engage these debates by studying foundational and emerging theories and examining empirical research on how social inequalities are reproduced or ameliorated through schools. Through close readings of historical, anthropological and sociological case studies of schooling in the U.S, students will develop an understanding of the structural forces and cultural processes that produce inequality in neighborhoods and schools, how they contribute to unequal opportunities, experiences, and achievement outcomes for students along lines of race/ethnicity, class, gender, and immigration status, and how students themselves navigate and interpret this unequal terrain. We will cover such topics as neighborhood and school segregation; peer culture; social networks; elite schooling; the interaction between home, society and educational institutions; and dynamics of assimilation for students from immigrant communities.

Bi-weekly Lecture  |  R 12:30 – 1:50 PM

MA Certificate students are required to enroll in this course for two quarters. Grading is Pass/Fail based on attendance. 

The Committee on Education hosts this bi-weekly Workshop on Education Lecture Series, in which leading researchers from both the University of Chicago and other institutions present cutting-edge research and discuss methodological advances for understanding the interplay of human development and the social institution of schooling. Students in the Education and Society certificate program are required to consistently attend the Education Workshop over a period of at least two quarters during their year of study. The Workshop provides a common intellectual foundation for students and faculty, who have the opportunity to hear presentations of new work by renowned faculty and promising emerging scholars, prior to publication.

Instructor: Marshall Jean  |  T R 3:30 – 4:50 PM 

This course examines the social organization of formal education – how schools are shaped by the social context in which they are situated, and how students’ experiences in turn shape our society. It focuses specifically on schools as the link between macrosociological phenomena (e.g. culture, political systems, segregation, inequality) and the microsociological interactions of individual students and educators. The focus will be on contemporary American education, although lessons from the past and abroad will inform our learning. Prior introductory coursework in sociology will be useful but is not required.

Instructor: Ming-Te Wang  |  T 9:30 AM – 12:20 PM 

This course focuses on developmental pathways from middle childhood through adolescence within the context of school, family, community, and culture. Because human development is an applied field, we will be paying special attention to how sociocultural and historical influences affect academic, socioemotional, and identity development in the context of real-world challenges and opportunities faced by adolescents. In addition to learning about developmental and sociocultural theories, students will apply research to policy and practice by creating resources geared toward youth, parents, or those who work with youth. 

Instructor: Steve Raudenbush  |  T R 9:30 – 10:50 AM

This course has two purposes. First, using nationally representative US surveys, we’ll examine the early emergence of educational inequality and its evolution during adolescence and adulthood. We’ll ask about the importance of social origins (parent social status, race/ethnicity, gender, and language) in predicting labor market outcomes. We’ll study the role that education and plays in shaping economic opportunity, beginning in early childhood. We’ll ask at what points interventions might effectively advance learning and reduce inequality.

Second, we’ll gain mastery over some important statistical methods required for answering these and related questions. Indeed, this course provides an introduction to quantitative methods and a foundation for other methods courses in the social sciences. We consider standard topics: graphical and tabular displays of univariate and bivariate distributions, an introduction to statistical inference, and commonly arising applications such as the t‐test, the two‐way contingency table, analysis of variance, and regression. However, all statistical ideas and methods are embedded in case studies including a national survey of adult labor force outcomes, a national survey of elementary school children, and a national survey that follows adolescents through secondary school into early adulthood. Thus, the course will consider all statistical choices and inferences in the context of the broader logic of inquiry with the aim of strengthening our understanding of that logic as well as of the statistical methods.

Instructor: Max Cuddy | T R 9:30 AM - 10:50 AM 

This course critically examines how power and culture operate within educational systems. This course will presume that education is not simply a neutral good that we must acquire to gain social mobility. Instead, educational systems are sites where power is enacted and where culture is learned (or suppressed). Thus, this course will ask important questions like: What type of education gets you power? What is the normative culture of education (schooling)? Do you need to perform a certain type of culture to accrue educational power? Who has power over educational systems? How is education wielded as a tool of power? Can educational systems be sites of challenging power? To answer these questions, we will read a range of educational scholars, sociologists, historians, anthropologists, and social theorists. We will pay particular attention to the many lines of difference that stratify educational systems, such as: race, indigeneity, gender, sexuality, class, nationality, and disability.

Instructor: Lisa Rosen  |  T 2:00 - 4:50 PM 

This course examines the dynamic relations between schooling and identity. We will explore how schools both enable and constrain the identities available to students and the consequences of this for academic achievement. We will examine these relations from multiple disciplinary perspectives, applying psychological, anthropological, sociological, and critical theories to understanding how students not only construct identities for themselves within schools, but also negotiate the identities imposed on them by others. Topics will include the role of peer culture, adult expectations, school practices and enduring social structures in shaping processes of identity formation in students and how these processes influence school engagement and achievement. We will consider how these processes unfold at all levels of schooling, from preschool through college, and for students who navigate a range of social identities, from marginalized to privileged.

Bi-weekly Lecture  |  R 12:30 – 1:50 PM

MA Certificate students are required to enroll in this course for two quarters. Grading is Pass/Fail based on attendance. 

The Committee on Education hosts this bi-weekly Workshop on Education Lecture Series, in which leading researchers from both the University of Chicago and other institutions present cutting-edge research and discuss methodological advances for understanding the interplay of human development and the social institution of schooling. Students in the Education and Society certificate program are required to consistently attend the Education Workshop over a period of at least two quarters during their year of study. The Workshop provides a common intellectual foundation for students and faculty, who have the opportunity to hear presentations of new work by renowned faculty and promising emerging scholars, prior to publication.

Instructor: Lebowski  |  T R 11:00 AM - 12:20 PM 

What is the relationship between physical processes in the brain and body and the processes of thought and consciousness that constitute our mental life? Philosophers and others have puzzled over this question for millennia. Many have concluded it to be intractable. In recent decades, the field of cognitive science–encompassing philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, computer science, linguistics, and other disciplines–has proposed a new form of answer. The driving idea is that the interaction of the mental and the physical may be understood via a third level of analysis: that of the computational. This course offers a critical introduction to the elements of this approach, and surveys some of the alternative models and theories that fall within it. Readings are drawn from a range of historical and contemporary sources in philosophy, psychology, linguistics, and computer science.

Instructor: Numanbayraktaroglu  |  T R 2:00 PM – 3:20 PM

This course provides an overview of theory and research on bilingualism. Through a critical examination of psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic approaches to bilingualism, we will aim to arrive at a comprehensive account of bilingual experience and its practical implications for education and mental health in a globalizing world.

In the course, we will address the following topics:

1. Theoretical and methodological foundations of bilingualism and multilingualism.
2. Bilingual and multilingual society, super-diversity, and translanguaging.
3. The relationship between bilingualism and cognition, emotion, and self.
4. Code-switching and identity.
5. Implications of bilingualism for education.

It is expected that, by the end of the course, you will develop a comprehensive understanding of bilingualism and multilingualism and apply this knowledge to your academic and professional context.

Instructor: Raikhel  |  T R 2:00 - 4:50 PM

This course draws on a range of perspectives from across the interpretive, critical, and humanistic social sciences to examine the issues of mental health, illness, and distress in higher education.

Instructor: Casillas Tice  |  T R 11:00 AM - 12:20 PM 

This course examines the social and cognitive mechanisms that drive language learning in the first few years of life. Nearly all children learn the language(s) of their community, despite the fact that human languages and caregiving practices offer immense diversity around the globe. What enables the learning system to adapt so robustly to the environment it finds itself in? We discuss the evidence for and against multiple factors that have been proposed to support language development across the world's communities. We also critically examine how these ideas intersect with current deficit models of language learning. It is expected that, by the end of the course, students will grasp the basic mechanisms proposed to underlie early language learning.

Instructor: Vasan | W 9:30 AM – 12:20 PM

Undergraduate & MA students only. This seminar centers individuals who reside on the margins of formal education in the US. We will focus on the ways of knowing, being, and doing that are marked as deviant in the context of education in the United States through a study of the experiences of students and educators holding non-dominant social locations due to their race, sexuality, gender, disability, and/or class. Course materials will primarily concern public K-12 schooling, with some supplementary readings from non-school educational contexts. In responding to course readings, we will consider together questions such as: What does education look like for students and teachers who occupy “deviant” social locations? What can we learn about educational realities and possibilities from the perspectives of students and teachers who hold non-dominant identities? What types of individual and collective action are available to those who occupy the margins of public schooling? What is the role of the researcher in producing scholarship that bears accurate and care-full witness to experiences outside of the mainstream? In this course, we will engage largely with empirical qualitative scholarship, as well as conceptual and theoretical texts, from anthropological, sociological, developmental, and non-academic scholars.

Instructor: Adukia | T 3:30 PM – 6:20 PM

This course covers policy issues related to education and inequality in developing contexts.  We will analyze education policies and reforms, develop skills to be a critical consumer of relevant research on each topic, and examine implications of the findings to policy and practice. Class content will include and incorporate discussion and lenses related to discrimination and inclusion in education, understanding factors that influence educational decisions, provision of basic needs in schools, teacher pay and incentives, educational responses to economic and social shocks, student behavior, and curricula. Students will develop skills understanding and interpreting academic papers.

Instructor: Jo | M 3:00 - 5:50 PM 

This seminar critically examines the intricate relationship between social stratification and our modern world. Over nine weeks, students will explore how social structure shapes individual potential for social reproduction and/or mobility, with a particular focus on how attributes of our modern society act as barriers and/or advantages for diverse pathways.

Instructor: Lisa Rosen 

Passionate conflicts over school curriculum and educational policy are a recurring phenomenon in the history of US schooling. Why are schools such frequent sites of struggle and what is at stake in these conflicts? In this discussion-based seminar, we will consider schools as battlegrounds in the US “culture wars”: contests over competing visions of national identity, morality, social order, the fundamental purposes of public education, and the role of the state vis-à-vis the family. Drawing on case studies from history, anthropology, sociology and critical race and gender studies, we will examine both past and contemporary debates over school curriculum and school policy. Topics may include clashes over: the teaching of evolution, sex and sexuality education, busing/desegregation, prayer in schools, multiculturalism, the content of the literary canon, the teaching of reading, mathematics and history, and the closure of “underperforming” urban schools. Our inquiry will examine how social and political movements have used schools to advance or resist particular agendas and social projects.

Instructor: Hong Jin Jo 

This course offers an in-depth introduction to the sociological study of higher education in both the United States and globally. It explores the evolving significance of college education for students and families, while analyzing how national and international social structures influence students’ educational trajectories. Key topics include college access, campus experiences, academic achievement, and post-graduation outcomes. Through these lenses, students will engage with critical questions about the role and impact of higher education in contemporary society.

Instructor: Amanda Ceniti

Why do we crave social media likes, persist in pursuing ambitious goals, or struggle with motivation during challenging times? Drawing on findings from psychology and neuroscience, this course will provide a comprehensive overview of the brain’s reward system. Students will become familiar with historical and current theoretical constructs of reward, including facets of motivation, anticipation, and pleasure, as well as their underlying neurobiology. We will understand the diverse experimental approaches that can be used to study reward function, including animal models, task-based neuroimaging (fMRI), computerized behavioral tasks, and clinical questionnaires. We will also discuss how the reward system is differentially affected in mental health conditions such as depression and substance use disorders, and the emerging interest in using reward as a biomarker and treatment target. Finally, we will explore the real-world applications of these findings, including on productivity, social media usage, education, and public policy.

Instructor: Yanyan Sheng

Accurate measurement of key theoretical constructs with known and consistent psychometric properties is one of the essential steps in quantitative social and behavioral research. However, measurement of phenomena that are not directly observable (such as psychological attributes, perceptions of organizational climate, or quality of services) is difficult. Much of the research in psychometrics has been developed in an attempt to properly define and quantify such phenomena. This course is designed to introduce students to the relevant concepts, principles, and methods underlying the construction and interpretation of tests or measures. It provides in-depth coverage of test reliability and validity, topics in test theory, and statistical procedures applicable to psychometric methods. Such understanding is essential for rigorous practice in measurement as well as for proper interpretation of research. The course is highly recommended for students who plan to pursue careers in academic research or applied practice involving the use or development of tests or measures in the social and behavioral sciences. Course work or background experience in statistics through inferential statistics and linear regression.

Instructor: Lesley Turner

This course will examine major policy issues in higher education in both the United States and abroad. Topics covered will include models of individuals’ educational investment decisions, rationale for government involvement in higher education markets, the effects of higher education on long-term social and economic outcomes, and the behavior of institutions that produce higher education. Students will use economic models and interpret experts’ empirical findings to analyze current issues in higher education policy such as free community college, financial aid and student loans, affirmative action, higher education accountability, and student debt relief.

Instructor: Marshall Jean

A number of diverse methodological problems such as correlates of change, analysis of multi-level data, and certain aspects of meta-analysis share a common feature-a hierarchical structure. The hierarchical linear model offers a promising approach to analyzing data in these situations. This course will survey the methodological literature in this area, and demonstrate how the hierarchical linear model can be applied to a range of problems. Introductory statistics training including multiple regression required.