PhD in Urban Education

Critical Lens

Students will engage and work with active researchers who integrate research, theory, and practice as they develop expertise in urban education. They will engage in critical scholarship on diversity, equity, and social justice, as well as with coursework that scaffolds their scientific writing and research methodology skills.

Comprehensive Focus

Each cohort will be socialized in professional skills (e.g., collaboration with research teams, school and community partners; oral and written presentations). Coursework, immersion into research methodology, experiential learning experiences, and exposure to diverse theoretical perspectives will comprehensively equip students to examine and research real-world, complex educational issues. In turn, students will be expected to produce dissertations that address the scope of issues confronting stakeholders in urban schools and contexts.

Make an Impact

Through engagement in coursework, intensive research, and hands-on experiential engagement with the broader urban context, the PhD in Urban Education program is producing the next generation of urban education scholars.

Meet the Faculty

Pictured left to right, clockwise: Urban Education faculty members Shanyce L. Campbell, Lori Delale-O’Connor, Sabina Vaught, Richard Benson, Leigh Patel, T. Elon Dancy II, and Lisa Ortiz

• For students who do not have a bachelor’s degree in an appropriate academic discipline, 18 credits must be taken outside of the Pitt School of Education in the appropriate academic disciplines.
• Students with a master’s degree in an appropriate academic discipline do not have to take any courses outside of the Pitt School of Education, and 18 credits from their master’s will count here for cognate courses.
• Students with a bachelor’s degree in an appropriate academic discipline are only required to take 9 credits outside of the Pitt School of Education in appropriate academic disciplines.