Social Sciences & Comparative Education Division

The Social Sciences and Comparative Education (SSCE) Division is concerned with issues of social, cultural, historical, and comparative/international contexts of education. The Division is multidisciplinary and brings various methodologies and vocabularies — discourse analysis, philosophical analysis, agency, representation and structure — as well as classical approaches to the study of education.

SSCE shares its commitment to theory with an equal commitment to empirical research, policy, and practice in terms of formal education (e.g., classroom research), informal education (e.g., mass media research and representation) and non-formal education (e.g., participatory action research, popular education).

SSCE aims to prepare students to:

• Teach and conduct research in philosophical, cultural, race, ethnic, gender, and comparative/international studies in education
• Act as specialists for U.S. and overseas programs, non-governmental agencies, and multilateral and bilateral technical assistance agencies
• Engage in philosophical, critical theoretical, cross-cultural, comparative, and social science analysis of educational issues in the United States and in other areas of the world
• Provide resource assistance for institutions and programs concerned with cultural studies, media technology, critical pedagogy, and multicultural, ethnic and cross-cultural education.

The Comparative/International Education program trains students in various facets of comparative, international, and cross-cultural education studies. Its general aims are: First, to train specialists in comparative/international education. Second, to train specialists in the development of comparative/international education theories, as well as research in field settings. Third, to promote and foster understanding of how educational policies and programs impact social, political, and economic development. Fourth, to focus on issues of equity, social justice, and education in global and domestic contexts. Fifth, to train students for leadership roles in government and non-government agencies, international, multilateral and bilateral institutions. Structurally, the specialization follows the pattern of the general UCLA campus, in that its specialists operate within an area studies structure. That is, comparative education specialists give attention to specific geographic regions of the world, though their research is also of a broader nature. Comparative education relies on a social science foundation. Its specialists are identified with the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, political science, economics, and history. Students are recruited from these backgrounds, though other fields, such as applied linguistics or the humanities, are relevant to the field.

The SSCE Division offers both the Master’s and Ph.D. degree in Comparative/International Studies in Education.

The program in Race, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies in Education is an interdisciplinary program of educational research, practice, and policy that focuses on the role of race, ethnicity, and culture in the United States and abroad. The program has a particular emphasis on the relationship between educational practice and structure (i.e., social and cultural contexts) and the production and reproduction of inequality and conflict. The program is also interested in critical approaches to representations of gender, race, class, and sexuality in education and culture and the new literacies necessary to analyze critically and interpret media culture, cyber culture, and multimedia culture. Courses in Race, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies in Education examine contemporary issues in education situated in historical and comparative contexts, such as the impact of postmodernism, feminism, and critical race theories on education. These conceptual approaches inform a critical approach to theory and methods that yield new insight into research, practice, and policy in educational settings.

The SSCE Division offers both the Master’s and Ph.D. degree in Race, Ethnic and Cultural Studies in Education.