Other Academic Opportunities

Committed to exploring high impact research questions, exploring new methods of inquiry, cultivating creative scholarship, and producing usable knowledge, EdJS provides a vibrant home for students and scholars interested in better understanding how people learn, what they learn, and what that learning ultimately means for themselves and their communities.

This unique interdisciplinary initiative is a home for innovative research at the intersection of Education and Jewish Studies. Studies of education focus on the diversity of ways in which people learn, from the cognitive to the cultural, and from classrooms and curricula to popular culture and social networks. Similarly, Jewish Studies investigates the varieties of Jewish experiences historically, transnationally, and in conversation with social formations like race, class, gender, sexuality, and religion. EDJS is a vibrant scholarly home for students and scholars interested in better understanding how these two fields of study overlap, interact, and mutually inform one another.

The PhD Concentration in Education and Jewish Studies is part of the Stanford Graduate School of Education and has been generously supported by a gift from the Jim Joseph Foundation.

For more information about the program, please visit edjs.stanford.edu.

The Ph.D. Minor in Education is intended for doctoral students at Stanford who would like to earn a Minor in Education while studying for their Ph.D. in another department or school outside of the GSE. Students must take at least 20 units of Education courses taught by GSE faculty (courses may be crosslisted). All courses must be at or above the 200 level, and at least 15 units must be taken for a letter grade. Students should also select an area of concentration within the GSE, which they should address in their statement.

Application Procedures: Submit application packet to the Associate Director of Degree Programs at stasulat@stanford.edu. The application packet consists of the following:

1. Graduate School of Education's application, including program proposal (this two-page form);
2. A statement of purpose indicating the relevance of a Minor in Education to the student's doctoral degree and the academic rationale for the program proposal (1 page);
3. Registrar's Application for PhD Minor form (available via the eForms portal in Axess)

The Associate Dean of Student Affairs will review the application. If admitted to the program, a Graduate Program Authorization Petition must be submitted by the student in Axess and be approved by the student's home department. There is no application deadline for the Ph.D. Minor in Education. Applications are accepted throughout the year.

Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) offers the opportunity to participate in a doctoral training program in Leadership for System-wide Inclusive Education (LSIE). 

LSIE will prepare next generation special education researchers to take on the most pressing issues facing education: (1) advancing equity for all; (2) improving learning outcomes for each and every learner; and (3) using cutting edge research techniques and practices to advance knowledge for practitioners, policy makers, and teacher educators. 

Through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs, LSIE scholars will receive 5 years of funding and participate in joint learning with a doctoral cohort at the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas. Students who receive funds under this grant will be responsible for working in the special education field after graduation as researchers, university faculty, school and district leaders, or in initiatives designed to improved outcomes for individuals with disabilities. 

In the spring of 2019, the GSE introduced an ambitious initiative on Learning Differences and the Future of Special Education, an interdisciplinary research and teacher preparation effort focused on improving the lives of millions of children worldwide with diverse learning needs. LSIE is the first doctoral training program introduced specifically under the initiative. 

Applicants to any GSE doctoral program are eligible. Contact Elizabeth Kozleski, Professor (Research), for more information about the program.

The Graduate School of Education (GSE) offers a Certificate Program for PhD students interested in partnership research in the field of education. The Certificate Program, unlike a Master’s Program, is not a degree program, but rather provides students with a certificate indicating that they have completed a set of training requirements in preparation and practical experience needed for partnership research including (1) skills and knowledge in varying forms of partnership research, (2) skills in advanced methods related to partnership research, and (3) knowledge of practice partners and organizations they work with, while also including hands-on experience in a research project in collaboration with a partner or partner organization. Currently, this program is offered only to Stanford GSE doctoral students, and there are discussions on how to expand this program to master’s students and students beyond the GSE. Here we provide a description of the certificate program goals and requirements.

Goals of the Certificate in Partnership Research

What is partnership research? Partnership research occurs when academic researchers and practice partners (e.g., educators, schools, districts, community organizations) share responsibility for the ideas, processes, and outcomes of a collaborative study. Coburn and Penuel (2016) describe research-practice partnerships as “long-term collaborations between practitioners and researchers that are organized to investigate problems of practice and solutions”, using intentional strategies to foster the partnership and produce original analyses of data to support improvements across the educational context (p. 48). The stakeholders and institutions involved in partnership research may include individuals, such as youth, families, community members, educators, school and district leaders, and policymakers, as well as institutions/organizations, such as schools, districts, state and federal legislation, industry, and non-governmental organizations (e.g., philanthropic institutions and community-based organizations).

What are the benefits of partnership research? Partnership research can lead to long-term research-practice relationships, supporting productive and enduring lines of inquiry. Such partnerships can contribute to innovation and knowledge-generation, including methods and practices. In developing more porous boundaries between the field and the research community, partnership research has the potential to strengthen both. And finally, partnership research aims to produce iterative cycles of design, implementation, analysis, and learning that results in research that is useful to and used by practitioners and researchers alike.

What is challenging about partnership research? Partnership research involves complex relationships that are susceptible to competing interests, with dynamic power structures among partners. One of the key elements negotiated and exchanged in a partnership is information and data about practices and policies. Sharing data across organizational boundaries is multifaceted, and requires significant time and resources, and necessitates trusting relationships between partners.

Requirements for Certificate in Partnership Research

To earn a Certificate in Partnership Research, Stanford GSE students must satisfy the following requirements:

1. Students must submit a proposed study plan: Currently enrolled Stanford students in good standing who wish to pursue the certificate must submit a plan for approval to the Certificate Program Director, Laura Wentworth. Upon review, the Program Director will file the plan with Stanford GSE’s Doctoral Program Officer.
2. Students must complete a set of courses and experiences to a satisfactory level (i.e., a grade of B or higher). Students must complete these courses, with 352A, 352B, and 352C completed in sequential order and submit a letter from their advisor to demonstrate their experiences and research assistantship in a research practice partnership.
   1. Two quarters of a research assistantship (RA) (either 25% or 50% FTE) while working in a research-practice partnership.
   2. Three courses:
      1. EDUC 352A Introduction to Research Practice Partnerships: In this course, students examine the distinctive characteristics of education research-practice partnerships (RPPs), how RPPs differ from other efforts to study and improve education, and the types of questions that have been explored in RPPs. Students will read about and discuss different types of RPPs including design-based implementation research, networked improvement communities, research alliances, and community-engaged research.
      2. One advanced methods course. Students need to have one course focused on advanced quantitative or qualitative research methods often used in partnership work. A list of possible courses includes (but is not limited to):
         1. EDUC 430A: Experimental Research Design and Analysis
         2. EDUC 430B: Causal Inference in Quantitative Education and Social Science Research
         3. EDUC 430C: Using Data to Describe the World: Descriptive Social Science Research
         4. EDUC 433: Intersectional Qualitative Approaches
         5. EDUC 450B: Using Video as Data in the Learning Sciences
         6. EDUC 450C: Qualitative Interviewing
      3. One knowledge building course or other qualifying experience. Students need to have one knowledge building course related to the organizations with whom researchers are partnering or experiences of historically underserved students. A list of possible courses and experiences includes (but is not limited to):
         1. EDUC 275: Leading Change in Schools
         2. EDUC 314: Funkentelechy: Technologies, Social Justice and Black Vernacular Cultures
         3. EDUC 340: Psychology and American Indian/Alaska Native Mental Health
         4. EDUC 360: Child Development in Contexts of Risk and Adversity
         5. EDUC 389A: Race, Ethnicity, and Language: Racial, Ethnic, and Linguistic Formations
         6. EDUC 390: Gentrification and Schools: Urban Structure and the Remaking of Cities
         7. EDUC 392: Education for Liberation: A History of African American Education, 1800 to the Present
         8. EDUC 428: Intersectional Justice in Education Policy and Practice
         9. Two years of professional experience working in the education sector
         10. Three quarters (instead of two quarters) working as a RA in a RPP
   3. Two seminars:
      1. EDUC 352B Seminar in Developing Partnership Research (1-2 Credits, Winter Quarter) (Note: EDUC 352 Education Research Partnerships also qualifies for this requirement) In this seminar, students begin to develop the foundational knowledge and skills for effective partnership research. This seminar introduces students to the skills and knowledge necessary for starting and sustaining partnership research through readings and discussions. Students develop a concept for partnership research they want to pursue and receive coaching and guidance on forming and nurturing a partnership research project.
      2. EDUC 352C Seminar in Advanced Partnership Research (1-2 Credits, Spring Quarter). In this seminar, students will discuss, read, and present about their own partnership research. They will tackle how to overcome issues of authority, status, and power, how to address challenges, and how to manage long term relationships and operations of partnership research. Each student will present and receive peer feedback on their partnership research as a capstone project.
3. Upon satisfactory completion of the required courses, seminars and experiences, a Certificate completion form should be signed by the Certificate Program Director, Stanford GSE’s Doctoral Program Officer, and the doctoral students’ advisor.
4. Successful candidates will receive a Certificate of Completion, signed by the Stanford GSE Dean and Certificate Program Director. A copy will be placed in the student file.

The Public Scholarship Collaborative is a community of graduate students committed to mobilizing research findings for the advancement of educational opportunity and equity in K–20 education. 

The goals of the collaborative are to:

• engage in public scholarship to bridge the distance between scholarly expertise and stakeholders’ understanding of educational equity issues;
• (re)frame, clarify, and advance interdisciplinary research-based and equity-minded viewpoints to offer guidance on education policy, practice, and research issues; and
• offer GSE graduate students opportunities to develop expertise in public scholarship.

Participating students will select key education topics or issues to target and identify national or international experts to co-author deliverables such as op-eds, blogs, briefs, podcasts, and commentaries. Students will co-author, edit, and seek placement for these deliverables in media outlets that reach target audiences.

Participant time commitment is 2-3 hours per week for this unpaid learning and professional development opportunity.

For more information, visit the website or contact the collaborative’s faculty advisor, Professor Alfredo Artiles.