UB Graduate School of Education: Social and Philosophical Foundations

Social and Philosophical Foundations

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Sociology of Education concentration

Who is This Program For?

"Education" takes place both in and outside of school. Young people and adults alike are increasingly working across different learning sites and settings (e.g., schools, colleges/universities, community centers, churches, and the work place) and engaging with many different kinds of technologies (e.g., the Internet) and texts (e.g., popular culture) in their daily lives. Moreover, they are doing so in a world that is rapidly changing socially, economically, culturally and technologically. Indeed, schools themselves have become complex spaces, where new kinds of class positions and identities are both reproduced and reinvented. The relationship between "school" and "society" has thus become increasingly difficult to predict a priori, making the "sociology of education" a particularly exciting area in which to work.

Our program is for anyone who wants to understand and to act critically on the complex social problems facing education—broadly conceived—today. These include, but are certainly not limited to:

The politics of race, class, and gender in US schools
The complex and unique problems facing urban education
Popular culture, media, and schooling
The increasing importance of "safe spaces"—for example, Boys & Girls Clubs, YMCA’s, and churches—in the lives of young people.

We offer both Ed.M. and Ph.D. degrees. The Ed.M. degree in Social Issues in Education is for anyone interested in becoming more critically reflective in their understanding of schools and society—whether as teacher, citizen, community worker, or parent. Our Ed.M. is flexible, and offers particularly exciting options and opportunities for the advancement of practicing educators, though our students come from many different walks of life and are in many different professions. The Ph.D. is intended for those who want to conduct more advanced and professional research in education. Our Ph.D. students have gone on to professorships at universities including University of Georgia, DePaul University, Hunter College, Cleveland State University, University of Cincinnati, CUNY Staten Island, and Youngstown State University.

Photos: SOE and GSE Guest Speakers and Classes (note)

Who We Are

The faculty in the sociology of education concentration at the University at Buffalo—Lois Weis and Greg Dimitriadis—are committed to interrogating and exploring contemporary concerns in the sociology of education in all of their complexity, both theoretically and practically. We are committed to providing students at all levels with the best possible intellectual and learning environment.

Lois Weis is author, co-author or editor of numerous books and articles, focusing on race, class and gender in American schools. Her most recent work deals with the complexities of qualitative research, the lives of poor and working class young adults, and the changing nature of students in higher education. Lois Weis’s books include:

Class Reunion: The New White Working Class (Routledge)
Construction Sites (Teachers College Press)
Speedbumps (Teachers College Press)
Beyond Silenced Voices (SUNY Press)
Working Class Without Work: High School Students in a De-Industrializing Economy (Routledge)
Race, Class and Gender in U.S. Schools (SUNY Press)
Off White: Readings on Race, Power, and Society (Routledge)
The Unknown City: The Lives of Poor and Working Class Young Adults (Beacon Press)

Lois Weis is Past President of the American Educational Studies Association and is on the editorial boards of several journals, including Educational Policy, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education and Review of Educational Research.

Greg Dimitriadis is interested in new ways of thinking about urban education and the policies which serve urban youth. More specifically, he is interested in the potential value and importance of non-traditional educational curricula (e.g., popular culture), programs (e.g., arts-based initiatives), and institutions (e.g., community centers) in the lives of disenfranchised young people. His work has appeared in several books as well as journals including Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, Ariel: A Review of International English Literature, British Journal of Sociology of Education, Cultural Studies / Critical Methodologies, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, Educational Theory, Popular Music, Qualitative Inquiry, Qualitative Research, Text and Performance Quarterly, and Theory and Research in Social Education.

Dimitriadis is the author of Performing Identity/Performing Culture: Hip Hop as Text, Pedagogy, and Lived Practice (Peter Lang) and Friendship, Cliques, and Gangs: Young Black Men Coming of Age in Urban America (Teachers College Press, Columbia University). He is co-author of Reading and Teaching the Postcolonial: From Baldwin to Basquiat and Beyond (Teachers College Press, Columbia University), On Qualitative Inquiry (Teachers College Press, Columbia University), and Theory for Education (Routledge).

Dimitriadis is co-editor of Promises to Keep: Cultural Studies, Democratic Education, and Public Life (Routledge), Learning to Labor in New Times (Routledge), Race, Identity, and Representation in Education (Second Edition) (Routledge), and Ideology, Curriculum, and the New Sociology of Education (Routledge).

Dimitriadis edits the book series Critical Youth Studies, published by Routledge. He is also a member of the SUNY Press editorial board.

Greg Dimitriadis is former Vice President and current Executive Committee Chairperson of Musicians United for Superior Education, Inc. (MUSE, Inc.). A non-profit organization, MUSE, Inc. provides performance-based arts instruction for hundreds of children in community centers and schools throughout Buffalo, New York.

Courses

We offer a range of innovative courses which draw together our overlapping and distinct interests in urban education, race, class, gender and social inequality, and media and popular culture. Faculty course offerings include: Socialization and Education, Sociological Bases of Education, Sociological Research Methods in Education, Sociology of School Knowledge, Reading Urban Ethnographies, Critical Pedagogy and Educational Practice, and Media, Popular Culture, and Pedagogy.

The Social Foundations of Education

The Sociology of Education is one strand in the Social Foundations of Education. If you study the sociology of education at UB, your degree will be in the Social Foundations of Education. All Foundations faculty members are accomplished scholars in their own fields. Several have been elected president of their disciplinary associations. As a student in the sociology of education, you will have many opportunities to work with and interact with this outstanding faculty as well as faculty across campus.

NOTE: Transfer among the programs of the Department is not encouraged. Students should not expect to enter one and later transfer to another.

I. Curriculum

All classes should be chosen in consultation with your advisor. The advisor MAY waive certain requirements if such work has been taken as part of a recent MA degree.
The following courses are required:

ELP 585 Sociological Bases in Education (3 crs.)
ELP 544 Sociology of School Knowledge (3 crs.)
ELP 593 Qualitative Research Methods in Education (this is a full year course) (6 crs.)
ELP 589 Education and Socialization (3 crs.)
ELP 566 (Comparative and Global Studies in Education) (3 crs.)
Or
ELP 530 (Structure and Reform of Education) (3 crs.)

Students must complete at least six credits of quantitative methods (one full year) (6 credits) – this may be met through a variety of combinations of the courses below (please check with your advisor).

CEP 522-523 sequence Statistical Methods: Inference I and II
CEP 500 (Fundamentals of Educational Research) (3 crs.)
CEP 512 (Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM): Multilevel and Longitudinal Data Analysis) (3 crs.)
ELP 685 (Applied Social Research) (3 crs.)
and/or
A full year Statistics course sequence from the Sociology Department.

We strongly recommend ELP 575 Education and Globalization.

Although it is not a required course at this time, we also strongly recommend ELP 599 Proposal Writing unless your advisor agrees that you may develop the proposal independent of this course.

II. Qualifying Examination

All students in Sociology of Education concentration must take the qualifying examination either December 15 (due January 15) or August 15 (due September 15). There will be no exceptions to this rule. No student may take the qualifying examination with an incomplete on their student record. All coursework must be completed before the examination may be taken, and students may not sign up for dissertation credit hours until they have passed the exam.

III. Advancement to Candidacy

Upon completion of most of the course work in the Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Doctoral (Ph.D.) program, students will file a Ph.D. Application to Candidacy for advancement to candidacy. This application will be approved by the student's faculty adviser, dissertation committee, and the department chair.

IV. Dissertation Research

A minimum of 9 credit hours of ELP 702 Dissertation Guidance is required.

More Information

If you are interested, please contact, Lois Weis or Greg Dimitriadis at:

University at Buffalo, State University of New York
Department of Educational Leadership and Policy
Graduate School of Education
468 Baldy Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-1000

Lois Weis: weis@buffalo.edu
Greg Dimitriadis: gjd3@buffalo.edu

Or you can apply online.

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