Program Overview

The Social Justice Education Graduate Certificate in Teaching for Diversity is a graduate program that offers theory, research, and exploration of social justice topics, curricular design and facilitation of learning, with practicum opportunities for supervised teaching in Social Justice Education classroom settings.  This Certificate makes available selected components of the overall Social Justice Education concentration. It is designed primarily for graduate students matriculated in university graduate programs who want to develop foundational knowledge, and curricular and facilitative skills in Social Justice Education.

This is a flexible five-course (15 credit) program, with requirements and electives, focusing on the foundational and curricular Social Justice Education knowledge and pedagogical skills needed for effective diversity teaching. This Certificate has two tracks: Track A is designed for graduate students teaching undergraduate diversity or social justice courses on campus and/or focused on higher education with an emphasis on Social Justice Education and College Students; Track B is designed for graduate students preparing for social justice teaching in schools or related venues (i.e., after-school programs) and/or focused on youth with an emphasis on Social Justice Education and Youth.

Requirements
Admission: Available primarily, but not exclusively, to matriculated graduate students by application to the program.

Completion: The Certificate consists of five courses (15 credits) as follows:

  • Two core Social Justice Education courses from within the Social Justice Education concentration.
  • Two electives selected from a list of Social Justice Education, College of Education, and cross-campus content courses that focus on diversity and social justice academic content. Note that these two electives can overlap with home department degree requirements if those courses have a social justice emphasis.
  • Social Justice Education teaching practicum (undergraduates on campus or students in schools or related venues). The supervised teaching practicum will focus upon Social Jusice Education course content, using Social Justice Education pedagogoies and teaching to a mixed, inclusive group of college students of youth in school or outside-of-school settings. In the supervised practicum, graduate students apply their social justice and diversity content knowledge and pedagogical skills to design and facilitate undergraduate Social Justice Education weekend seminars, or schools-related diversity/social justice opportunities.

For further information, contact: Ximena Zúñiga, xzuniga@educ.umass.edu or go to www.umass.edu/education/academics/certificate/sje.