Depending upon individual interests, students may also select courses in a supporting area, such as learning and cognition, teaching methods, human development, advanced quantitative techniques, and others. Students may enter the doctoral program with a masters degree in any of a number of fields. Students with only an undergraduate degree may wish to earn a masters degree in educational research before entering the doctoral program. The programs in history, sociology and philosophy of education offer substantive training in the relevant disciplines and their relationship to education. Philosophy of education includes both the historical study of philosophical theories as they apply to education and the application of philosophical methods and questions to educational thought.
Sociology of education is the study of human efforts to achieve cultural continuity.
Examined are the dynamics of schools and other institutions established to transmit culture to future generations, the relationship between formal and informal educational processes and the relationships between race, class and education. A primary subject of inquiry is that of educational institutions and formal systems of education. Opportunities are provided for students to apply methods of historical research to the study of the origin and evolution of educational ideas and the role of education in cultural history.