Urban Catholic Teacher Corps Doctoral Fellow
Urban Catholic Teacher Corps Doctoral Fellow
About the program
Founded in 1997, the Urban Catholic Teacher Corps. of Boston College (UCTC) actively forms and prepares Catholic school educators for the schools of the Archdiocese of Boston that intentionally serve urban students and families. Concurrently, UCTC also actively engages in research in support of a thriving future for urban Catholic education in the United States.
For information on the Urban Catholic Teacher Corps Doctoral Fellowship please contact, Dr. Charlie Cownie.
For more information about the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Curriculum and Instruction program, contact us today!
“Joining the UCTC team has been instrumental to my growth as a researcher and educator. I have gained an eclectic set of research skills working on various studies, each at different stages of development and employing different methodologies. More specifically, I have been involved with projects focusing on the experiences of UCTC members, the response of educators to COVID-19, the development of meaning and purpose among educators, and the current landscape of urban Catholic schools nationwide. No matter the area I have been working in, research or instruction, there has been consistent support to accomplish my professional and academic goals.”
UCTC Doctoral Fellow Preferred Experience and Qualifications
Passion for Catholic education with an interest in urban Catholic education
Familiarity or prior experience working in a Catholic PreK-12 education, especially in an urban setting
Interest or desire to engage in Catholic educational research
Potential for engaging in and supervising data collection, data management, and data analysis (quantitative/qualitative)
Desire to and/or potential for writing journal articles, research briefs, project summaries, and conference presentations
Strong verbal and written communication skills
Fluency in Spanish, Haitian Creole, or Vietnamese
UCTC Doctoral Fellowship Program
The UCTC Doctoral Fellow is a doctoral student in Curriculum & Instruction who works with the UCTC program in research and teaching of UCTC masters students. The fellow maintains a 20-hour assistantship for at least 4 years and receives guaranteed funding (credit hours, stipend, and insurance) for at least their first four years. Though a UCTC Fellow is not required to complete their dissertation in an area of Catholic education, the fellow will have access to all current UCTC-sponsored research.
At the time of completing the Curriculum & Instruction Ph.D. application please select that you are interested in being considered for the Urban Catholic Teacher Corps. Doctoral Fellowship. Once submitted, interested applicants will be reviewed along with all other applicants and if advanced interested candidates will be additionally reviewed and interviewed by the UCTC team for this specific fellowship.
As with all Curriculum & Instruction doctoral students, a Teaching Curriculum and Society (TCS) faculty member with an understanding, willingness, or desire to support a student passionate about Catholic education will serve as the advisor of the admitted doctoral student funded through this opportunity. The UCTC Fellow will additionally have the benefit of the support of the UCTC program’s entire professional team.
UCTC will provide a 20-hour assistantship to the individual selected for this opportunity. The assistantship affords the doctoral student the opportunity to work with UCTC and/or teach some Catholic Education courses in semesters where Lynch faculty are unavailable. Fellows will receive mentorship and gain experience in a variety of research methodologies, including, but not limited to quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, descriptive, analytical, applied and exploratory research, dependent upon the research studies that they are working on. Fellows will receive training, as needed, in the design and data collection techniques that correspond to the aforementioned methodologies—surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, document review. Training for the diverse programs used in UCTC, such as SPSS, NVivo, and Qualtrics, will also be provided when relevant to work. Depending on the particular research study, fellows will be involved in the different stages of the research process, from identifying topics and designing a study, data cleaning to analyzing, presenting and publishing findings.
UCTC currently has multiple open studies including, but not limited to, Sustaining the Legacy 2020 (mixed methods), Latino Family School Choice (qualitative), Schools Responses to Crisis (qualitative), Lives of Meaning and Purpose among Teachers (mixed methods), and Forming Anti-racist Teachers (qualitative). Doctoral students from multiple doctoral programs at Lynch are already involved in the majority of these studies; thus incoming fellows will be collaborating with peers from across Lynch in these and other research endeavors.
Case of Student Desiring to Change Focus: If a Fellow realizes a passion for, or interest in, other areas than Catholic education, UCTC is open to Fellows pursuing all options that best prepare them for their future research and the job market. At the same time, however, UCTC will expect the Fellows to fulfill their 20-hour a week commitment to UCTC research throughout their four years of guaranteed funding.