Critical Educational Change and Leadership

Curriculum

The Critical Educational Change and Leadership (CECL) Masters Degree integrates critical awareness of systemic oppression with liberatory, social-justice practices for educators across sectors. While acknowledging and studying technologies of social inequity like white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, neoliberalism, and coloniality, to name a few, the CECL concentration positions students to work against inequity in all aspects of human life.

This program is well-suited for anyone interested in education as a means of working toward social justice. This may include community-based educators, K-12 educators, cultural workers, and all those interested in raising their consciousness around the relationship between education and social justice.

The Critical Educational Change and Leadership Concentration is comprised of the following courses. Students can complete this program in 4 quarters of full-time coursework, or extend the program by attending part-time.

B EDUC 512: Social Justice Education: Oppression, Resistance, and Liberation

Surveys the roots and manifestations of social injustices in communities and society, with a particular lens on how education has perpetuated these injustices. Builds an understanding of the complex matrices of injustice, examining the creative and subversive acts of communities to leverage education as a tool of resistance and liberation.

B EDUC 550: Critical Pedagogy

Focuses on critical inquiry into contemporary beliefs about knowledge, learning, and teaching by exploring how educational systems are manifestations of culture and politics. Introduces progressive pedagogies that challenge dominant cultural paradigms and are models for transformational educational change.

B EDUC 580: Critical Policy in Education

Explores policies shaping K12 education as influenced by major institutional complexes, including various levels of government organizations.

B EDUC 504: Enacting Agency for Social Justice

Focuses on building a social justice ethos through practice, examining a variety of models and methods embodying social justice principles within educational settings. Develops a knowledge base of practices for social justice education, including: multicultural group processing, anti-oppressive organizing, and effective dialogue strategies across difference.

Course Scheduling

M.Ed. courses are scheduled to meet the needs of working professionals. Students can expect to attend evenings on the UW Bothell campus. The following scheduling scenarios may help prospective students plan their enrollment and projected completion timeline. Once admitted, the M.Ed. advisor will work with students to plan their coursework.

Courses will meet 1-2 times per week. Generally, courses that meet once per week are 3-4 hours in length. Courses meeting twice per week are generally 2 hours long.