Early Childhood Education

Foundation Requirements (9 hours required)

• EDC 380F  Sociocultural Foundations
• EDC 381F  Introduction to Teaching and Teacher Education
• EDC 383F  Curriculum Theory

Research Methodology Requirements (12 hours minimum)

To be taken in sequence:

• EDC 381R  Intro to Systems of Human Inquiry
• The following two courses (6 hours), in any order:
  • EDC 385R  Introduction To Quantitative Research
  • EDC 386R  Introduction To Qualitative Research
• One course (3 hours) from either of the following:
  • EDC 387R  Advanced Quantitative Research
  • EDC 388R  Advanced Qualitative Research

• EDC 385G  Research in Early Childhood Education
• EDC 396T  Directed Research (3-6 hours)

Select one course (3 hours) from the following after consulting with the program advisor:

• EDC 385G  Global, Comparative Early Childhood
• EDC 385G  Critical Perspectives on Childhood Education
• EDC 385K  Environmental Education for Young Children

Students with an emphasis in Early Childhood Education will select an additional 12 hours of coursework from within the early childhood program area, selected with the assistance and approval of the area program adviser. Among the courses that might be selected to fulfill this requirement are the following:

• EDC 385G  Critical Perspectives on Childhood Education IV
• EDC 385G  Early Childhood Education Programs
• EDC 385G  Early Childhood Teacher Education
• EDC 385K  Environmental Education for Young Children
• EDC 385G  Global, Comparative Early Childhood
• EDC 385G  Inquiry in Play
• EDC 385G  Parents and Education
• EDC 385G  Research in Early Childhood Education
• EDC 385G  Social Context of Childhood Education
• EDC 385G  Theories of Childhood Education
• EDC 385G  Thinking as Social Construction in Childhood

Students may substitute up to 6 hours of their specialization required credits with coursework within the department of curriculum and instruction, outside of the early childhood program area pending approval of the area program adviser. Early childhood graduate students can take courses in bilingual/bicultural, language and literacy, cultural studies, STEM and learning technologies as a way to study the topics that are relevant to their work.

Students will select 6 credit hours outside of Curriculum & Instruction. Courses must be graduate level and other than EDC. Early childhood graduate students have taken courses in many programs including theater/dance, human development, special education, educational psychology, anthropology, sociology, social work, Indigenous studies, Mexican-American studies, and African and African diaspora studies.

Coursework from Directed Research may fulfill this requirement, but it does not count twice towards the 51 minimum hours of coursework needed for this degree.

Students are required to continuously register for at least three credits of dissertation once they have advanced to candidacy. 

You must register in X99W (399, 699 or 999W) in each semester of candidacy until you graduate.

Please Note: Students receiving fellowships, assistantships, or other financial aid, may be required to take 9 hours of dissertation credit each semester.

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