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Society, Culture & Politics in Education

• Introduction
• People
• Program Requirements
• Application for Admission
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Contact Information

Introduction

The M.A. and M.Ed. graduate programs in Society, Culture and Politics in Education (SCPE) address the historical, social, political, philosophical, and cultural aspects of education. Education is defined broadly to include, not only formal schooling, but also both non-formal education and informal learning at all levels and life stages. SCPE programs focus, in particular, on the relation of educational theories, policies, and practices with the larger contexts that influence them, and that they, in turn, influence. Students and faculty in SCPE share interests in education’s role in developing more socially and ecologically just societies. These interests range from the education of responsible global citizens to the improvement of Aboriginal students’ educational experiences, and from curricular representations to the politics of assessment.

The SCPE programs were created in 2004, when previous programs in History of Education, Philosophy of Education, and Sociology/Anthropology of Education merged with the specialization in Feminism and Social Justice in Education. Today, students in the SCPE programs can still pursue specific historical, philosophical, sociological or anthropological interests in education, but can also approach educational questions from multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives.

Consistent with the multidisciplinary nature of Educational Studies itself, SCPE faculty bring to their teaching and research expertise from the disciplines and fields of sociology, history, anthropology, and philosophy of education; political science; cultural and social geography; and the interdisciplinary field of cultural studies. They investigate education conceptually and empirically, analyzing its contexts as well as justifications of and challenges to its purposes. Faculty members address pressing challenges in education in areas such as youth culture; marginalization and exclusion based on race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability, and class; representation and power; multicultural and anti-oppressive approaches; and ecological justice.

WHO ARE THESE PROGRAMS FOR?

The graduate programs in Society, Culture and Politics in Education are of interest to students with a variety of profiles that can broadly be categorized as:

• those who wish to become educational researchers at universities or non-university research centers;
• those who are, or wish to become, policy makers or analysts in education;
• those who work as K-12 teachers, community educators, vocational curriculum developers, or other kinds of educators, and who are interested in deepening their understanding of their professional practice.

Students in SCPE graduate programs, both M.A. and M.Ed., become critical readers and users of educational research into causes of and possible solutions for educational inequalities at the local, provincial, national and global levels.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE M.A. AND THE M.ED PROGRAM?

The M.A. program in Society, Culture and Politics in Education involves the completion of an independent research project culminating in a Master’s thesis. This is the most common path for those wishing to pursue doctoral studies and to become educational researchers, and it prepares graduates in the basics of conducting educational research. The emphasis in the M.Ed. program is on the critical use, rather than production, of educational scholarship and research. Educational practitioners and those who are or wish to become policy makers or analysts may choose to pursue either an M.A. or an M.Ed. degree, depending on how much independent research they wish to carry out.

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People

Student representative

Kveta Safarik <kvetas@interchange.ubc.ca>

Administrative Staff

Program Secretary
Ms. Roweena Bacchus is the Program Secretary. She is a resource in helping you to navigate the campus and communicate with Program faculty. Roweena is interested in anti-racism and multiculturalism and their implications. She is a board member of the Vancouver Multicultural Society, a member of Amnesty International (Group 17, East Vancouver) and Chair of the Stop Violence Against Women campaign. Email: <Roweena.Bacchus@ubc.ca>

Facilities Secretary
Mrs. Jeannie Young assists students with inquiries about UBC and communicates with applicants. She is responsible for the loaning and setting up of equipment. Jeannie was born in Vancouver’s Chinatown. She lives in Richmond with her husband, Gordon and three children aged 16 to 24. She enjoys badminton, traveling, camping, trying out ethnic foods, sewing, and loves children’s literature (historical fiction). Email: <Jeannie.Young@ubc.ca>

Graduate Secretary
Ms. Christine Adams sorts out any problems the students have while in their program, along with processing grant applications and answering questions from current and potential students. Her interests are card making, cross-stitching and reading, mainly mystery novels, collecting tarot cards. Email: <grad.edst@ubc.ca>

Faculty

Kogila Adam-Moodley is a Professor in the Department of Educational Studies. She researches ethnic and race relations internationally with a special focus on South Africa, as well as education for conflict resolution, truth commissions and the politics of memory. Because of her upcoming retirement, she is no longer accepting new students.

Jo-ann Archibald is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies, as well as the Faculty of Education’s Associate Dean for Indigenous Education, and the Acting Director of the Native Indian Teacher Education Program. Her teaching and research include: Indigenous knowledges, Indigenous methodologies, storytelling/oral tradition, heart and mind education, and transformative education.

Jo-Anne Dillabough is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies. She researches and teaches in the fields of sociology of education and youth studies and her current research focuses upon economically disadvantaged youth, youth culture and social exclusion.

Donald Fisher is a Professor in the Department of Educational Studies and Co-Director of the Centre for Higher Education and Training located in this department. His research interests include historical sociology of university education, academy/State/industry relations, academic culture, commercialization and marketization, philanthropy, political economy.

Mona Gleason is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies. Her research interests include the history of education and the history of children and youth in Canada and internationally in the 19th and 20th centuries. In particular, Mona has investigated the history of attitudes towards children’s incompetence and vulnerability on the part of educational and medical professionals and youngsters’ responses to these conceptualizations in the context of English Canada.

Her teaching interests include the history of education, the history of children and youth, the history of the body, gender and sexuality, and the history of the family. Courses taught include EDST 502A, Growing Up in History: The Meanings of Childhood; EDST 506, Educating the Body: Physicality and Identity in Historical Perspective, and numerous pre-service teacher education courses focused on social justice, history of education, and history of children and youth.

Selected publications:
Gleason, M. “Between Education and Memory: Health and Childhood in English Canada, 1900-1950,” Scientia Canadensis 29, 1 (2006): 49-72.

Gleason, M. “From ‘Disgraceful Carelessness’ to ‘Intelligent Precaution’: Accidents and the Public Child in English-Canada, 1900 to 1950” Journal of Family History 30, 2 (April, 2005): 230-241.

Gleason, M. Normalizing the Ideal: Psychology, Schooling and the Family in Postwar Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999).

Deirdre Kelly is a Professor in the Department of Educational Studies. She has worked in and studied universities, public schools (both alternative and conventional), and community-based organizations in North America.

Deirdre’s research interests include teaching for social justice and feminist studies in education. She has undertaken several projects aimed at recording and analyzing what teachers are actually saying—and doing—when teaching for social justice. She has also done conceptual work to map the many meanings of social justice in the context of schooling and equitable classroom assessment. She has explored the contested meanings of “girl power,” writing about alternative practices of femininity and girlhood (e.g., girls who skateboard, girls who do online role-play gaming).

Deirdre teaches courses in the areas of feminist studies of education, sociology of education, teaching for social justice, practitioner inquiry, qualitative research methodology, and educational policy studies.

Selected publications:
Kelly, Deirdre M., Pomerantz, Shauna, & Currie, Dawn H. (2006). “No boundaries”? Girls’ interactive, online learning about femininities. Youth & Society, 38(1), 3-28.

Kelly, Deirdre M. (2006). Frame work: Helping youth counter their misrepresentation in media. Canadian Journal of Education, 29(1), 27-48.

Kelly, Deirdre M., Brandes, Gabriella Minnes, & Orlowski, Paul. (2003-2004). Teaching for social justice: Veteran high school teachers’ perspectives. Scholar-Practitioner Quarterly, 2(2), 39-57.

Michael Marker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies and Director of Ts'`kel. His research interests are in ethnohistory of education, Indigenous issues in higher education; Indigenous epistemologies and political contexts; Culturally responsive pedagogy; Coast Salish education; Place based knowledge and narrative; Anthropology and Indigenous peoples, International Indigenous education; Historical interpretation and Aboriginal education.

His teaching interests include: First Nations Pedagogy and Anthropology of Education EADM 508a (Ts'`kel); First Nations Methodology EADM 508b (Ts'`kel); First Nations and Educational Change* SCPE Elective

Selected publications:
Michael Marker, "After the Makah Whalehunt: Indigenous Knowledge and Limits to Multicultural Discourse," Urban Education, Vol. 41, No. 5,2006, 482-505.

Michael Marker, "It Was Two Different Times of the Day, But in the Same Place': Coast Salish High School Experience in the 1970s," BC Studies, 144, 2004/05, 91- 113.

Michael Marker, "Theories and Disciplines as Sites of Struggle: The Reproduction of Colonial Dominance Through the Controlling of Knowledge in the Academy, Canadian Journal of Native Education, 28(1,2) 2004, 102-110.

Leslie G. Roman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies. She teaches, conducts research and publishes widely in feminist cultural studies and the sociology of education with a focus on critiques of colonial nation-building and the development of anti-racist and anti-ableist feminist pedagogies., as well as anti-colonial qualitative research methods.

Claudia W. Ruitenberg is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Studies. Before coming to UBC she taught at the University of Saskatchewan and Simon Fraser University. Prior to her doctoral studies she worked as a policy advisor for the Rotterdam Arts Council and the Rotterdam Association for Art Education, both in the Netherlands. She is a graduate of Lester B. Pearson College on Vancouver Island, B.C.

Claudia’s research interests include speech act theory and questions of censorship in education, identity construction and identity politics, gender issues and queer theory, and political education and democratic citizenship. What connects these areas is an interest in language theory in education and, in particular, discursive understandings of language and the constitutive force of language. This interest in language theory touches on many areas central to the field of philosophy of education and concerns about social justice in education, but also connects literature in educational theory with literature from in other fields, such as women’s and gender studies, cultural studies, and political science.

Claudia has taught EDST 597, Educational Theories, and EDST 454, Critical Thinking: Frameworks, Methods and Challenges.

Selected publications:
Ruitenberg, C. (in press). Discourse, theatrical performance, agency: The analytic force of performativity” in education. In B. Stengel (Ed.), Philosophy of Education 2007. Urbana, IL: Philosophy of Education Society.

Ruitenberg, C. (in press). Here be dragons: Exploring cartography in educational theory and research. Complicity: An international journal of complexity and education, 4.

Ruitenberg, C. (2005). Deconstructing the experience of the local: Towards a radical pedagogy of place. In K. Howe (Ed.), Philosophy of Education 2005 (pp. 212-220). Urbana, IL: Philosophy of Education Society.

Veronica Strong-Boag is a Professor in the Departments of Educational Studies and Women’s Studies. She researches and writes in the history of women, childhood, and education and is especially interested in the ways that gender, race, and class contribute to the construction of advantage and disadvantage for Canadians.

Allison Tom is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies. Her current research is focused on the interaction between disability and work experiences among adults in British Columbia.

Charles Ungerleider is a Professor in the Department of Educational Studies. He is an applied sociologist whose work focuses on the politics and policies in education affecting such matters as governance, finance, accountability, teacher unions and professionalism, and curriculum and instruction. He was British Columbia’s Deputy Minister of Education from 1998 until 2001. Charles has been seconded to the Canadian Council on Learning, where he is the Director of Research and Knowledge Mobilization.

Daniel Vokey is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies. He came to UBC in 2002 after five years with the Faculty of Education at UPEI in Charlottetown, which followed his doctoral work in Philosophy of Education at the University of Toronto. In his teaching and research he draws from his academic background in philosophy and religious studies, his professional career as an instructor and consultant in adventure-based experiential education (Outward Bound), and his personal study and practice of Shambhala Buddhism.

Daniel offers professional ethics courses in both the Educational Administration and Leadership Program and the Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy Program within EDST. He also offers conceptual inquiry courses that examine the different kinds of work undertaken within philosophy of education and how that work contributes to educational theory and practice. Twice he has offered special topics courses through the Centre for Cross Faculty Inquiry. The first was on transformative education; the second on spirituality and education in a pluralistic world.

Daniel’s long term research agenda has been to provide an account of the source and justification of moral beliefs to inform educational programs that seek to promote commitment to particular moral values. Such programs include initiatives in character, citizenship, environmental, holistic, multicultural, anti-racist, and transformative education. His recent focus is on integrating “eastern” and “western” perspectives on the development of practical wisdom. A related project undertakes to describe how conceptual inquiry contributes to interdisciplinary research. It investigates the hypothesis that integrative research is facilitated when individual studies are located, not only in terms of the particular paradigms and corresponding traditions of inquiry within which they are undertaken, but also in terms of the specific nature of their contributions to these larger enterprises.

Selected publications:
Vokey, Daniel. (2006). What are we doing when we are doing Philosophy of Education? Paideusis, 15(1), 45-55.

Vokey, Daniel. (2006). Reasons of the heart: East-West dialogue and the search for moral truth. In D. Spivak & S. Burn (Eds.), Unity and diversity in religion and culture: Exploring the psychological and philosophical issues underlying global conflict (pp. 590-600). St. Petersburg, RUS: Eidos.

Vokey, Daniel. (2005). Teaching professional ethics for educators: Assessing the “multiple ethical languages approach. In K. Howe (Ed.), Philosophy of Education 2005 (pp. 125-133). Urbana-Champaign: Philosophy of Education Society.

Handel Wright is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies. He is a Canada Research Chair in Comparative Cultural Studies and holds the David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education. He teaches and conducts research on cultural studies, critical multiculturalism and anti-racism education, qualitative and critical ethnographic research and issues of sociocultural difference and social justice.

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Program Requirements

The core course requirements for the Master of Arts program (M.A.) and Master of Education program (M.Ed.) in Society, Culture and Politics in Education are the same. The M.A. program requires an additional research methods course and the completion of an M.A. thesis. The M.Ed. program requires more elective courses and the completion of a graduating paper or capstone course.

Core course descriptions

EDST 577: Social context of educational policy
This course examines the relationships among educational policy, research, knowledge, and power relations as they affect educational practice and outcomes. Participants examine how educational policies work through various theoretical frames or traditions with the aim of showing how each tradition would construct and deconstruct educational policy. These frames are used to tease out what researchers mean when they refer to the authority of “policy” to make educational claims.

EDUC 500: Research methods in education
This course offers an introduction to various issues, methods, and techniques in educational research. As a first course in research, the focus is on a range of methodological possibilities, guided by the hope that this sort of introduction will enable students to make more informed decisions regarding those issues and methods that they might investigate further. As such, students should leave the course with a broad familiarity of the field, not with a detailed knowledge of particular methodologies.

EDST 509: Constructing ‘citizens’: Canada and the educational past
This course explores how understandings of race, gender, and class inform assumptions about citizens, citizenship, and nations that are integral to education. It asks how some Canadians’ values and beliefs about citizenship have shaped identities of other Canadians both in and out of the classroom. Examination of past attitudes and practices helps to understand that notions of equity, that are sometimes taken for granted, are as socially constructed today as they ever were.

EDST 570: Seminar in sociology of education
This course will serve as an introduction to the contested field of sociology of education. Some argue that sociology is a traditional discipline that embraces normative concepts of the state and society and has not kept up with contemporary debates about the constitution of the ‘subject’ and power. Others argue that contemporary sociology is no longer a body of knowledge that solely represents normative concepts of power. Studying a range of theoretical perspectives and debates in sociology will aid in both the application of sociological concepts, as well as an understanding of sociology’s relationship to education and social thought.

EDST 597: Educational theories
This course addresses the intersection of theories of education and theories of social justice. Since education is a central social institution, forming an organizing force in society together with other institutions such as law, health care, or family, ideas about what education is, what purposes it should serve, and how it should be provided, are closely entwined with ideas about what a society is and how it should function. Influential theories of education and social justice, and their connections, will be discussed.

EDST 553: Capstone course
This course serves as a final course requirement in the Masters of Education program in Society, Politics and Culture in Education (SCPE). It includes critical analysis of relevant reading material and practical application of ideas learned in the program to a specific educational and/or community-based context of interest to the student.

Titles of M.A. theses that have been completed in Society, Culture, and Politics and Education include:

• Official Space(s) and Contemporary Canadian Nation-Building: An Analysis of the Shari'a Proposal in the Marginalization and Privatization of Muslim Women Post 9/11
• Nation Building and Public Education in the Crossfire: An Examination of the Abbotsford School Board's 1981-1995 Origin of Life Policy
• Running Threads: A Critical Discourse Analysis of B.C.'s Sexuality Education Curricula
• Towards a Perspicuous Image of Social Responsibility: A Critique of The British Columbia Performance Standards for Social Responsibility
• The View from the Bench: Coaches' Perceptions of Homonegativity in High School Girls' Sports
• The Face of Achievement: Influences on Teacher Decision Making About Aboriginal Students

Titles of M.Ed. graduating papers that have been completed in Society, Culture, and Politics and Education include:

• A Portuguese Heritage Language School in Vancouver in the Late 1970's A Reflection on the Experience, its Meaning and Function
• Men Working Against Sexual Assault: Challenges and Successes in Delivering Anti-Sexual Assault Workshops in All-male Peer Education Environments
• Pedagogy of Space at a Democratic Free School: A Case Study of Windsor House
• Facing the Challenge: Integrating Multicultural Education into English Literacy Programs in Chinese Universities

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APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION

We are looking for students with a genuine interest in the role of educational policies, theories, and practices in developing more socially and ecologically just societies. Students should be able to demonstrate academic strength, preferably in one or more of the disciplinary or interdisciplinary areas in the humanities and social sciences that inform the SCPE programs (history, sociology, philosophy, cultural studies, women’s and gender studies, human geography, political science, etc.).

Both the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Master of Education (M.A.) programs in SCPE start in September of each year. Candidates who wish to apply for entry into one of the SCPE programs should submit their applications by February 1st of the year in which they wish to start.

All applicants to graduate programs in the Department of Educational Studies must meet basic requirements established by the Faculty of Graduate Studies, which oversees graduate work at UBC, as well as departmental standards. Please see http://edst.educ.ubc.ca/admission/requirements.html for more information.

While applicants must have completed a four year degree from a recoginzed post-secondary institution to be admitted to UBC and have a B+ average during the last two years of full time undergraduate study, an undergraduate degree in education is not a requirement for addmission to SCPE. What is required is evidence of experience in the field of education broadly conceived.

Applicants whose degrees are from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must present evidence of competency to pursue studies in the English language prior to being extended an offer of admission. Acceptable English language proficiency tests for applicants to graduate studies are TOEFL, IELTS and MELAB. For minimum scores and documentation requirements, please see http://edst.educ.ubc.ca/admission/apply.html

Your application can be submitted on-line at http://www.grad.ubc.ca/apply/online/. Alternatively, an application form is available from Roweena Bacchus, receptionist, (604) 822-5374 or roweena.bacchus@ubc.ca.

For further information please contact:
Dr.Veronica Strong-Boag, coordinator of SCPE programs: stbg@interchange.ubc.ca

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: Can I be a part-time student in SCPE?

A: Yes, but you have to decide at the beginning of the program that you will be a part-time student throughout. It is not possible to switch from full-time to part-time status or vice versa during your program. For more information, please go to: http://www.grad.ubc.ca/policy/index.asp?menu=002,003,000,000

Q: Is it possible to switch to the M.Ed. program in SCPE after I have been accepted as a SCPE M.A. student?

A: Yes, it is generally permissible to switch from the M.A. to the M.Ed. program, but the reasons for the switch must be laid out in a memorandum to the Faculty of Graduate Studies. Generally the decision to switch, which must be made for academic reasons, should be discussed with the student’s supervisor and the program coordinator. The program coordinator then makes the formal request to transfer programs to the Faculty of Graduate Studies. Please note that the M.Ed, program requires six credits more in elective courses than the M.A. program.

Q: Is it possible to switch to the M.A. program in SCPE after I have been accepted as a SCPE M.Ed. student?

A: If you have been accepted as an M.Ed. student and, after you have taken a few courses in the program, you decide that you would like to undertake an independent research project of the scope of a thesis, it may be possible to switch to the M.A. program. Acceptance into the M.A. is dependent upon your grades in the graduate courses you have taken, the motivation of your request, and the willingness of your pro-tem supervisor or another faculty member to supervise your thesis work.

Q: Can I take undergraduate elective courses as part of my SCPE graduate program?

A: Yes, you can, as long as you take a minimum of 24 credits in your program at the 500 level and discuss your rationale for choosing such courses with your advisor.

Q. Can I take graduate courses offered by other Faculty of Education departments and by other UBC Faculties?

A: Yes, you can, in your electives and/or as a second research methodology course.

Q: What is the maximum time allowed to complete My SCPE M.Ed. or M.A. degree?

A: The maximum time to complete a Master's program is five years.

Q: Does a Master’s degree in Society, Culture and Politics in Education qualify me to be a classroom teacher?

A: No, it does not. For information on becoming certified as a classroom teacher, please go to http://teach.educ.ubc.ca/

Q: Where do graduates of SCPE M.A. and M.Ed. programs go on to work or study?

A: Some of our graduate students are K-12 classroom teachers and use their degree to enhance their practice, others take up positions in aid organizations, government departments, and community-based settings. Our graduates also go on to do Ph.D. work in universities across the country and around the world where they continue to generate important research into challenges facing education in local and global settings.

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Contact information

Dr. Veronica Strong-Boag, coordinator of SCPE programs: stbg@interchange.ubc.ca

Mailing address:
Society, Culture, and Politics in Education
Department of Educational Studies
Faculty of Education
The University of British Columbia
2125 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada

Useful phone numbers:
SCPE Secretary (604) 822-5374
EDST & SCPE fax (604) 822-4244
EDST Graduate Secretary (604) 822-6647

How and where to find SCPE on the UBC campus?

Map of UBC

If you arrive at UBC by car, the closest entrance to campus is Gate 6, off Marine Drive. Please park in the “West Parkade” on your right. The Ponderosa Complex is one block north of the parkade. The reception desk is located in Ponderosa Annex “G” at 2044 Lower Mall.

If you arrive at UBC by bus, get off at the UBC bus loop and proceed west four blocks to the Lower Mall and the Ponderosa complex on your right.

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