Minority and Urban Education is a group of faculty, students, and staff who are committed to improving opportunities and equity for children whose lives are marginalized at the intersections of race, linguistic diversity, gender, ethnicity, and social class through our research, teaching, and practice. Applying a social justice framework, we examine how broad social and political contexts impact urban teachers, students, families, and communities in various settings and seek strategies for community empowerment and transformation.This program is specifically designed to provide graduate students with a broad base of knowledge about the education of minorities and of students in urban areas. This includes such issues as the social and political context of urban schools, the practices and policies that govern urban teaching, and the education of ethnic, racial, cultural and language minorities in all settings. To that end, the unit is designed to provide an explicit focus on the scope of issues confronting minority students in urban and other contexts. Opportunities for graduate students and faculty to form long-lasting relationships with school leaders and community educators and activists involved with the Maryland Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education (MIMAUE) also exist. Both faculty and students actively participate in conferences, colloquia, research projects, fellowships and other grants available through the Institute. The field of Minority & Urban Education necessarily incorporates perspectives from a variety of fields such as Sociology, Urban Planning, Political Science, Educational Policy and Leadership as well as Science, Math and Literacy. As such, students are encouraged to develop a cognate in a related area of study.The Minority & Urban Education specialization prepares M.A.-non-thesis students to work as educators, curriculum specialists, researchers and teacher educators in schools and universities in urban school districts and districts with large minority populations.