Our Intellectual Community

Education, Equity, and Society (EES) is an intellectual community within the College of Education that encourages us to explore the meaning, purpose, and significance of education in diverse community contexts with the aim of contributing to local and global educational equity and social change. We are an interdisciplinary group that draws on expertise in several traditions and cultural contexts. Combining strong disciplinary foundations with applied study and research, we seek to uncover traditions of agency and collective action in education and to help students build upon these traditions by partnering with schools, social agencies, families, and community networks to advance educational justice.

To date, EES faculty have included:

  • Megan Bang
  • Filiberto Barajas Lopez
  • James Banks
  • Nancy Beadie
  • Maggie Beneke
  • Jondou Chase Chen
  • Dafney Dabach
  • Geneva Gay
  • Ann Ishimaru
  • Kara Jackson
  • Brinda Jegatheesan
  • Janine Jones
  • Debby Kerdeman
  • Sara Lopez
  • Joe Lott
  • Emily Machado
  • Maresi Nerad
  • Django Paris
  • Soojin Oh Park
  • Walter Parker
  • Niral Shah
  • Molly Shea
  • Katie Headrick Taylor
  • Manka Varghese
  • Shaneé Washington
  • Beth West
  • Joy Williamson-Lott
  • Ken Zeichner

Our Graduate Certificate Program

The EES graduate certificate program is intended for students at the College of Education and other academic units at the University of Washington to receive additional training that prepares certificate recipients for civic engagement or employment in positions seeking, in part or in whole, to advance equity in education and society at large. Taken together, the proposed requirements of the EES certificate provide students with the academic training to understand that educational equity can be theorized, researched, and applied differently across multiple educational disciplines and contexts. It is by committing to ongoing learning and bringing these different strands of equity work together, that our students will be best equipped to advance educational justice upon completion of our certificate program.

To receive the EES certificate as part of their University of Washington graduate degree, students must complete 16 graduate credits (with course numbers 400 or higher).

Four of these credits must come from enrolling in the EES Colloquium Series (EDLPS 549 or EDUC 503) for three quarters - twice for one credit and then the third time for two credits as the capstone project for the certificate. This capstone project will involve co-designing and co-facilitating the colloquium series for that particular quarter.  

The remaining 12 credits must come from the following list of approved elective courses and be taught be EES faculty. All EES elective courses have been assigned to one of five course categories: 

  • Structure & Agency in Education

  • Education in Community, Cultural, and Global Contexts 

  • Culture and Knowledge Construction

  • Multicultural and Multilingual Learning and Development

  • Equitable Research Design and Methodologies

Students may complete their 12 elective credits with all 12 credits coming from one course category or the 12 credits coming from at least three of the course categories. A list of approved EES courses and faculty can be found here. 

Please also note:

  • Only 6 of the 16 credits that students complete for the EES certificate can also count toward the required number of credits for their program (i.e. students must complete at least 10 credits in addition to their degree requirements).
  • At least 9 of the 16 credits must be graded, and students must receive a GPA of 2.8 for each of these courses (and 3.0 overall) to count toward the certificate.
  • Students in fee-based programs pursuing the certificate may enroll in approved EES courses from state-supported programs and will pay separate additional course fees for those courses.
  • Students in state-supported program pursuing the certificate may enroll in approved EES courses from fee-based programs and will pay separate additional course fees for those courses.

Students intending to pursue the EES certificate must complete the EES Application Form. Students can complete this form at any time before enrolling in the EES Colloquium Series (EDLPS 549 or EDUC 503) for two credits as their capstone project. 

Students who have completed all requirements for the EES certificate must complete the EES Completion Form. Students should complete this form after completion of their capstone project unless this is their final quarter for their graduate program, in which case they should complete the form by the end of the third week of the quarter. 

Faculty seeking join the EES faculty or petition to have their courses added to the EES certificate program must complete this form. 

Any inquiries regarding the EES intellectual community, colloquium series, or certificate program can be directed to Jondou Chen at jondou@uw.edu.