About the History & Social Science Education Doctoral Program
Program Overview
The Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on History and Social Science Education across elementary and secondary levels in the School of Education at Virginia Tech prepares classroom teachers, administrators, and other professionals to become scholars and teacher educators who are leaders and advocates in social studies. Candidates will be able to develop specialized knowledge of the connections between theory and research that is grounded in an understanding of historical and current trends in the foundations of History and Social Science Education and teaching and learning within frameworks centered around research on history education, global citizenship, curriculum studies, digital technologies, and religion. University faculty will guide doctoral students to engage in critical inquiry and serve as leaders in support of learning and development. This program will prepare students for college and university faculty positions as well as positions in curriculum, instruction, and assessment at the state or national level, or for jobs in research/curriculum design in public and private institutions.
Courses in the program focus on literacies that make up History and Social Science Education—including historical, religious, and digital (AI and media) literacies—and the link between theory and practice as it relates to curriculum and instruction across innovative research methodologies and theoretical models of teaching and learning in formal and informal spaces. Program faculty are scholars whose work is grounded in history and social science, alongside a commitment to creating spaces where doctoral students can explore and develop research agendas that place critical inquiry at the core of efforts to sustain and improve the field of history education within a democratic society. In the program, students will:
- Learn from and collaborate with faculty who are actively engaged in scholarly research, teaching, and service endeavors in history and social science fields;
- Discern among multiple modes of educational practice, formulate their own philosophical orientations based on scholarly inquiry, and enact approaches consistent with these perspectives;
- Model reflective practice through their own teaching, research, service, and advocacy;
- Develop, pursue, and sustain clear, dynamic, and programmatic lines of scholarly inquiry;
- Produce and disseminate scholarly artifacts through critical inquiry that meet rigorous standards of quality in relevant fields;
- Share knowledge and expertise at the international, national, regional, state, and local levels of professional organizations and other constituencies.
The program requires a one-year academic residency. During residency, doctoral students have opportunities to work alongside faculty members in experiences that apprentice them into the community of social science scholars and teacher educators. This may include either a research or teaching apprenticeship.
- Research apprenticeships provide opportunities to work alongside faculty engaged in research. A research apprenticeship includes opportunities to experience as many different aspects of the research process as possible including (a) conceptualizing a study, (b) framing research questions, (c) situating the research in related literature, (d) framing the study theoretically, (e) collecting and analyzing data, (f) presenting the research at a national research conference, and (g) writing and submitting the research for publication.
- Teaching apprenticeships provide opportunities to work alongside faculty engaged in teaching and field supervision. A teaching apprenticeship includes opportunities to experience as many different aspects of teacher preparation as possible, including (a) syllabus development, (b) in-person teaching, (c) asynchronous and hybrid teaching, and (d) supervision and mentoring of preservice teachers in field placements.
Apprenticeships may occur as part of a graduate assistantship and/or as part of the doctoral student’s coursework.
What You'll Study
The History and Social Science Education Doctoral Program emphasizes the following strands of research pertaining to History and Social Science:
- Comparative studies of history and social science education
- Education of preservice and in-service teachers
- How students learn history and social science
- The role of multimedia and technology to support historical inquiry
- Curriculum History
- Citizenship Education
- Teaching and Learning with and About Difficult Knowledge / History informal and informal setting
- Learning and Assessment in Social Studies
Students enrolled in the doctoral program must pass four exams and submit a dissertation as part of the degree requirements.
- Qualifying Exam
- Preliminary Exam
- Prospectus
- Final Examination
Plan of Study
Doctoral candidates will work closely with their advisor to craft a Plan of Study. This will include a series of independent studies around the history and nature of research and practice in the social studies. Candidates may also choose to take graduate coursework in a social science (History, Political Science, Geography, Economics, etc.) as part of their cognate.
The Plan of Study (90 credit hours) for History and Social Science doctoral students must include the following minimum requirements:
- Research: 15 hours minimum
- Core Requirements: 15 hours minimum
- Major Requirements: 15 hours minimum
- Dissertation: 30 hours minimum
- Cognate: 9 hours minimum
Dissertation
The Ph.D. degree in Curriculum & Instruction with a specialization in History and Social Science Education is not awarded solely on the basis of coursework completion. To graduate, each student must also conduct an original research study culminating in the presentation and defense of a dissertation. Acceptance for publication prior to the defense does not constitute successful completion of the dissertation. The dissertation demonstrates the student’s ability to investigate a practical issue in History and Social Science education, as agreed upon by the student’s dissertation chair and advisory committee. A student may write their dissertations in the traditional five-chapter format (i.e., as a research paper with an introduction, literature review, methodology, results, and conclusion) or as a manuscript-style dissertation, which includes two to three publishable journal articles (e.g., a scoping study (required), an empirical study (required), and a second empirical study or a practitioner article) along with introduction and conclusion chapters. Students work with their dissertation chair and committee to determine the best format for their dissertation. You can find the formatting guidelines for traditional and manuscript style dissertations in this guide from University Libraries.
Course Descriptions
EDEP 6114 Cognitive Processes and Educational Practices (3 credits) (S)
EDCI 6021 Concepts of Equity in Education (3 credits) (Ideally F)
EDCI 6444 Theoretical Frameworks in Education Research (3 credits) (S)
EDCI 6054 Academic Writing for Educational Research (3 credits) (S, even)
EDCI 6944 Professional Seminar (3 credits) (F)
(Choose 5 research courses from the following list or suitable replacement, including at least one class in both Qualitative and Quantitative Research).
EDCI 5784 Discourse Analysis in Educational Environments
EDRE 6504 Qualitative Methods in Educational Research I
EDRE 6524 Qualitative Methods in Educational Research II
EDCI 6534 Ethnographic Research Methods in Education
EDRE 6605 Quantitative Research Methods in Education I
EDRE 6784 Advanced Issues in Qualitative Research
EDRE 6606 Quantitative Research Methods in Education II
HD 5714 Mixed Methods Research
Required Courses:
EDCI 6224 Social Studies Seminar I: Integrated Curriculum and Instruction (F, odd)
EDCI 6234 Social Studies Seminar II: Research and Practice in Disciplinary Literacy (F, even)
EDCI 6164 Global Citizenship Education (3 credits) (S, odd)
Selected Courses (2-5 courses selected from the following list or suitable replacement)
EDEP 6224 Constructivism and Education (3 credits) (S)
EDCI 6014 Advanced Topics in Teacher Education Curriculum (3 credits) (F)
EDCI 5324 Diverse Literature (3 credits) (F, even)
EDCI 6984 Special Study (College Instruction Mentorship) (3 credits) (F, S)
EDEP 6644 College Teaching (3 credits) (F)
Affiliated Centers
The Center for Humanities champions the humanities at Virginia Tech and beyond. They support innovative scholarship and foster collaboration across disciplinary boundaries. Reflecting Virginia Tech’s spirit of public service, they harness the power of the humanities to do good in the world.
Dr. Hicks and Dr. Allen have partnered with the Center for Humanities on a number of projects, grants, and professional development events. In Fall 2026, they led a Center for Humanities working group focused on AI in the Humanities. They also co-hosted two multi-day professional development events:
- “Let’s Get Chatty: AI, Inquiry and History,” for teachers from Virginia and North Carolina
- “Teaching History with Chatty Geeps,” for teachers across the U.S.
The Center for Rural Education aims to advance educational opportunity in rural communities through research and outreach. Working with transdisciplinary teams from Virginia Tech and beyond, especially partners in rural communities, the Center for Rural Education seeks to understand and address the complex challenges that impact rural schooling.
Dr. Hicks and Dr. Allen have partnered with the VT Center for Rural Education on a number of projects and grants. In 2023, the CRE co-sponsored Dr. Allen’s Teaching with Primary Sources grant, geared toward rural educators in Virginia. Dr. Hicks and Dr. Allen also presented as part of RuralFest 2026 and taught rural middle school students about History & AI at the Big Ideas in the Humanities Camp.
The Virginia Tech Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention is an academic and research organization whose vision builds on the cultural initiatives that evolved within the Virginia Tech community after the tragedy of April 16, 2007. The center’s educational mission envisions a world informed by cross-disciplinary work in violence prevention research, education, and hands-on learning experience.
The center is organized into Hubs focusing on various aspects of violence and violence prevention; Dr. Allen leads the Civic Pluralism and Peace Education hub.
The Center for Oral History at Virginia Tech (COH) brings together an interdisciplinary group of faculty, professional staff, students, and community stakeholders to provide leadership in the advancement, creation, use, and preservation of oral history and digital storytelling content, methodologies, research, and scholarships. As an institutional hub fascilitating the creation and stewardship of oral history research, content, and scholarship, the COH serves primarily as a research center; but in engaging faculty and students in experiential learning opportunities with diverse groups and persons from within and beyond the university community, it also supports and provides instruction and outreach.
Dr. Hicks serves on the Advisory Board for the Center for Oral History.
The Center for Human-Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech (CHCI) is a world leader in HCI research, both designing interactive experiences and studying human interaction with and through technology.
Dr. Hicks is an affiliated researcher with the Center for Human-Computer Interaction.
Selected Publications and Presentations
Al Dirani, H., & Allen, A. (2024). Linking place-based social studies education and critical place inquiry in the quest for social change. Theory & Research in Social Education, 53(2), 324–328. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2024.2331378
Allen, A., Engelhardt, M., & Stewart, C. (2024). Pre-service teachers’ understanding of sacrificial listening as a pedagogical framework. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 56(6), 721–738. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2023.2271545
Allen, A., Hansen, C., & Yates, L. (2026). Sanitized pluralism or civic learning? Religion in NCSS-recommended picture books, 2000–2024. Theory & Research in Social Education.
Allen, A., Stewart, C., & Engelhardt, M. (2024). “Nothing compares to actually listening… ”: Experiences with sacrificial listening and place-based education. Social Studies Research and Practice, 19(2), 224-238. https://doi.org/10.1108/SSRP-01-2024-0007
Dalton, C. (2026). Teaching in the shadow of machines: Thoughtfulness in Practice. Theory & Research in Social Education, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2026.2645016
Evers, S., Hicks, D., & Shelburne, S. (2025). Whose historical thinking? Representation of women in the Digital Inquiry Group’s Reading Like a Historian world history curriculum. Theory & Research in Social Education, 53(3), 403–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2025.2469495
Hicks, D., Allen, A., & Evers, S. (2025). Cultivating folio thinking in teacher education: A case study on the evolution of reflective ePortfolio assignments. AAEEBL ePortfolio Review, 19-29. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zmQAJPKigRkSqo116CAMCwQdxwAhzzYZ/view
Allen, A., Hicks, D., van Hover, S., Evers, S., Hansen, C., Dalton, C., & Fleenor, S. (December 2025). Wicked good inquiry: AI grimoires to support historical thinking. National Council for the Social Studies. Washington, D.C.
Allen, A., Savage, D., & Payne, J. (December 2025). Teaching dignity: Connecting story to history: Integrating primary sources with SCAPE. National Council for the Social Studies. Washington, D.C.
Engelhardt, M., Allen, A., & Stewart, C. (June 2023). Dismantling spaces of silence through sacrificial listening: A framework for teaching elementary social studies. Social Science Education Consortium Annual Conference. Bellingham, WA.
Hansen, C., & Allen, A. (June 2025). National Council for the Social Studies Jewish picture books: A snapshot of an erased modern identity. Children’s Literature Association Annual Conference. Online.
Hicks, D., Allen, A., Evers, S., Savage, D., & Pearson, J. (March 2025). Beyond lesson planning: Leveraging AI to teach historical inquiry. National Council for History Education Annual Conference. St Louis, MO.
Hicks, D., Allen, A., Evers, S., van Hover, S., Fortune, D., Dalton, C., & Fleenor, S. (December 2025). Digital democracy detectives: OSINT tools for inquiry, civic engagement, and combating misinformation. National Council for the Social Studies. Washington, D.C.
Nicosia, E., Felan, A., Allen, A., Hansen, C., & Soules, K. (December 2025). Framing faith: How high school social studies standards construct religion and reproduce power. College and University Faculty Assembly. Washington, D.C.
Payne, J., & Allen, A. (March 2026). Bringing National History Day to elementary classrooms through resilience and resistance of underrepresented groups. National Council for History Education Annual Conference, Montgomery, AL.
Pearson, J. & Allen, A. (March 2025). Teaching housing discrimination using primary sources. National Council for History Education Annual Conference. St Louis, MO.
Stewart, C., Engelhardt, M., & Allen, A. (June 2023). Sacrificial listening in action: A tool for building understanding through children’s literature. Children’s Literature Association Annual Conference. Bellevue, WA.