Teaching, Learning & Sociocultural Studies Degrees

Help the next generation of youth succeed on their educational journey with a Bachelor of Arts in Education in Early Childhood Education. As a preschool or K-3 teacher, you’ll help their students build a solid foundation to support them through future learning, creating and implementing instructional plans that allow your students to soar. Our Early Childhood Education degree emphasizes strong home-to-school connections by developing deep relationships with the families our teachers serve.

Cultivate your leadership potential, foster your strategic decision-making skills, and gain the foundation to excel in a competitive landscape with a degree in Leadership and Learning Innovation. This degree provides students with a justice-oriented framework for leadership in a variety of education and industry settings. Graduates work in a wide range of fields, including nonprofit work, youth services, local and state government, and community outreach initiatives.

The Adolescents, Community & Education Minor is designed to introduce students to the benefits and challenges of working with children and adolescents in school and community settings. Coursework covers how adolescents learn, develop, and negotiate their unique and changing roles in a multicultural society, educational issues affecting adolescents today, and community internships in school and non-school settings.

This minor explores the power of recreation and sport to enhance quality of life, instill meaningful social values, and create opportunities for healthy development in people of all ages. Coursework will build applied programming and administration skills, as well as examine the theory and socio-cultural context of recreation and sport, including issues of access and equity. Students with this minor are equipped to provide quality, inclusive, accessible leisure experiences in a wide variety of settings.

The Teaching Online by Design (TOBD) minor is designed to engage and prepare students on how to design and facilitate online courses/programs.

This minor provides a deep dive into current theories and practices of instructional design and teaching/learning in the field of online education. It further aims to prepare undergraduates for careers in online education involving all levels of education from K-12, higher education, government, and industry.

We envision a world in which children in Southern Arizona have access to high quality education, and we are creating that world through our Humanizing and Culturally Affirming Teacher Program (HCAT). The HCAT program is a two-year, context-specific program that prepares teachers for the borderlands of Arizona, culminating in an M.Ed Secondary Education and Arizona secondary certification for grades 7-12. The program’s philosophy relies on critical analyses of teachers’ sociocultural, political, and economic positionalities.

A certificate in Inclusive Leadership in Sport and Recreation will develop student’s knowledge and skills specifically related to equity, inclusion, and justice in athletic and leisure contexts. Students will engage with faculty who have extensive practical experience in athletics, coaching, recreation, and physical education in flexible and engaging online course options that fit with any schedule.
 

The Language, Reading & Culture master’s program focuses on theory, research, and practice in language, literacy, and culture, encouraging critical inquiry to examine sociocultural issues within teaching and learning. A wide range of courses and experiences are available around focus areas, including children’s and young adult literature, bilingual education and English language learners, diversity and social justice, early childhood education, literacies for a multicultural multimodal world, and Indigenous education and language.

The Sport and Recreation Leadership MA program will prepare dynamic leaders in sports and recreation fields. Students will focus on issues of equity and justice in sport and recreation, policy analysis and implementation, coaching, administrative functions related to human resources, finance, and marketing, as well as general best practices in the field.
 

A certificate in Sport and Recreation Management will develop knowledge and skills in organizational leadership, policy analysis and implementation, as well as administrative functions like human resources, finance, and marketing. Students will engage with faculty who have extensive practical experience in athletics, coaching, recreation, and physical education in flexible and engaging online course options that fit with any schedule.
 

Teach Arizona is a fast-track, one-year MEd plus certification program for prospective high school or middle school teachers who have a bachelor’s degree and want to teach one of the following subjects: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, general science, Spanish, American Sign Language, Mandarin, French, English, history, political science, or economics. Teach Arizona students have the opportunity to complete a year-long student teaching internship during the program before stepping into the profession.

The Teaching and Learning M.A. program supports you in developing and expanding your teaching tools. In this 2-year program, you’ll learn the latest information about teaching and learning while specializing in an area that matches your interests. The program has a fully distance-based option with synchronous classes over zoom.
 

The doctoral program in Teaching, Learning & Sociocultural Studies (TLS) prepares students to investigate and address a broad range of issues in teaching and learning. Emphasizing a sociocultural perspective, the program nurtures innovative ways of knowing, methods of inquiry, and approaches to problem-solving. Students are encouraged to focus their studies in one of our 9 pre-designed specializations, but may customize a plan of study in agreement with their graduate committee to fit their interests and needs.