Ph. D. Programs

Our Commitment

We are committed to creating a diverse community: We believe that diversity of background, experience, expertise, and perspective enriches our scholarship, our practice, and our lives. We seek to attract and retain the best faculty and graduate students possible. We also strive to promote high-quality, equitable education and to generate a sense of professional responsibility for the improvement of education in its multiple dimensions. We also seek both to understand and to reform education: We have an obligation to engage in meaningful research about education. But we also recognize our obligation to move beyond analysis and promote education reform, seeking to improve the conditions of teaching and learning for students and educators alike. This means looking beyond the technical concerns of teaching and learning to the broader social responsibility we bear for promoting social equity in and through education.

Promising Scholars and Leaders

The Ph.D. program in Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education (CITE) is designed for persons who are interested in and show promise of becoming scholars and leaders in the domains of curriculum, teaching, teacher education, and educational policy at the K-12 or college level, or in local, state, regional, national, or international institutions or agencies. Our graduates, who work all over the U.S. and the world, are educational researchers, teacher educators, policy makers, instructional coaches, directors of professional development, and practicing schoolteachers.

Literacy Specialization

Our program offers a literacy specialization as well. The Language and Literacy Specialization is designed for persons interested in studying best practices, literacy development, how it influences our socio-cultural identities and much more. Graduates of the Language and Literacy doctoral option will be better prepared to become literacy researchers, teacher educators, educational leaders, policy makers, and classroom teachers.

Come Explore

If you are committed to education and see a future as a scholar and leader, please contact our department. We invite you to come to MSU and take a look around our department, we are sure you will like what you see. Spend a day or two at MSU and sit in on graduate courses, meet with faculty who share your interests and get a glimpse into what life as a doctoral student is like by meeting with current students. If you would like to check out our programs, email Dr. Avner Segall about setting up a time to visit our department. If you are interested in the application process for the Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education (CITE) Ph. D. program or specialization in literacy, visit the doctoral program website.