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Community-engaged education bridges the divide between academia (PK–16) and activism by exploring how schools and communities can partner with one another for mutual benefit. The Master of Arts program in Community-Engaged Education & Social Change trains educators who understand the critical intersections across learning, teaching, and local community.

Designed for students interested in nonprofit, educational, and public-service careers, this experiential degree program allows you to participate in community-campus partnerships to exercise alternative and critical pedagogies. The program’s unique curriculum offers opportunities for important self-reflection and newfound awareness of local knowledge, assets, and alternative education projects. The program also examines current scholarship on the process of community-building and social change through texts, guest speakers, and community internships.

Program Highlights

Program At a Glance

UNITS
32 units or
Accelerated Program: 12 units (Claremont Colleges) and 20 units (CGU)

ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME*
Full-time: 11 months
Part-time: Varies by number of units taken per term

*Actual completion times will vary and may be higher, depending on full- or part-time course registration, units transferred, and time to complete other degree requirements.

COURSES BEGIN
Fall | Spring | Summer

DEGREE AWARDED
MA in Community-Engaged Education & Social Change

Featured Courses

EDUC 425
Race & Racism in Education

Broadens student understanding of the foundations of racial inequities in education and how racism has shaped students’ educational experiences and outcomes.

EDUC 573 
Prison Education: Community-Based Education & Social Change

Provides students with an opportunity to create and facilitate curriculum based on their own critical pedagogies within the educational setting of a local men’s prison.

EDUC 426
Critical & Asset-based Theoretical Frameworks

Focuses on asset-based frameworks to examine the experiences of underrepresented and marginalized communities in K-12 and Higher Education.

EDUC 451
Current & Critical Issues in Schools and Communities: A Capstone Course

Studies the sociological, historical, political, legal, and philosophical bases of American education, philanthropy, and movement building, and examines the principles, problems, and practices influencing schools, communities, and public services.

EDUC 572
Community Partnerships & Relationships for Social Change

Examines how the larger social structures that schools are embedded in and how these structures impact students and families whose children attend these schools.

EDUC 574
Community-based Participatory Research: Focus on Transformative Movement Organizing

Provides an introduction to community-based participatory research methods (CBPR), such as participatory observation, archival research, interviews, focus groups, and the means by which students can engage in research design, data collection, and analysis in collaboration with community partners.

Student Spotlight

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Alumni Spotlight

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Accelerated Degree Option

Undergraduate students from the Claremont Colleges can petition to transfer in up to 12 units of “community-engaged themed” coursework from the Claremont Colleges. Credits are applied to the CEESC’s “Programmatic Choices” (and thus are not used in lieu of CEESC required courses). Students must have earned a B or better in the class for it to be transferable. Petitions related to transferable courses are reviewed by the dean of the School of Educational Studies and/or the coordinator of the CEESC program.

Faculty & Research

Request information about the Community-Engaged Education & Social Change program

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Carina Navarro

Assistant Director of Admissions
T: 909-607-0201
E: carina.navarro@cgu.edu