Welcome to the Department of Educational and Cultural Studies

The Department of Educational and Cultural Studies started its functions at the beginning of Fall 2004-2005.  It includes a number of scholars and faculty of various academic ranks in different areas of specializations including Educational Administration, Psychology, Curricula and Methods of Teaching, Special Education, Applied and Fine Arts, Kindergarten and many other areas related to educational, psychological and human sciences.

The Department of Educational and Cultural Studies offers the following academic degrees:

• MA degrees in Educational Administration and Psychological Guidance and Counseling, curriculum & teaching methods, and TASOL
• BA degree in Special Education, Art Education, Kindergarten, fine Arts, basic education - first field, and basic education - second field
• Diploma in Special Education

Vision

The Department of Educational and Cultural Studies aspires to achieve quality and distinction through performance and continuous achievements; especially in areas of preparing the educational cadre in general, preparing teachers, provision of distinctive environment for education and learning, conducting research and educational studies and offering academic advisory and community service.

This vision is based on the following:

• Education and teaching is a profession that develops cognitively and technically rapidly
•  Being aware that the role of the teacher is no longer a didactic one.  It is a facilitator of learning, manipulator of the educational process, planning, creativity, team work, and autonomous learning.
• Belief that the process of preparing high quality distinctive teachers is the basis of success in the Department of Educational and Cultural Studies in achieving its mission and tasks.
• The Department of Educational and Cultural Studies has a more general and cultural role than just preparing teachers.
• Education is the basis for national security and the Department of Educational and Cultural Studies has a pivotal role in emphasizing this function 

Mission

The mission of the Department of Educational and Cultural Studies is to prepare and train teachers who believe in their mission and who are able to innovate, form a world of teaching and learning and compete in the job market.  This also entails preparing educational cadre who are able to conduct research in educational and cultural studies and develop the educational system, promote the educational knowledge, solve the educational problems and provide services and specialized technical consultations.     

Objectives

The Department of Educational and Cultural Studies aims to prepare specialized academic cadre who work to achieve the vision of the Department and its mission proceeding from the vision of the university education in the Sultanate of Oman, its mission and basic values as per the following:

• Preparing competent academic educational cadre in academic specializations to supplement the basic and secondary schools in Sultanate of Oman with teachers who own educational, theoretical, applied and high skills.
• Linking the University with the society through openness to academic, social and administrative institutions through contribution to the diagnosis of the developmental, economic, social, health, educational and psychological problems that face the Omani society.
• Training students practically on using the modern technology in teaching through the Learning Technology Center and fieldwork of practical training and the micro-educational lab
• Providing counseling service programs and educational guidance for students at the University to develop scientific solutions that face them
• Adoption of graduate programs in the Higher Diploma in a variety of disciplines and master's programs in the educational and psychological sciences to create specialized cadres who are academically highly qualified to meet the needs of development in the sectors of education and higher education in the Sultanate.
• Encouraging scientific research in dealing with different phenomena by training students in the field to conduct applied research and assigning scientific reports in the courses they study.
• Meeting the needs of the local community of the qualified specialists in the field of education
• Working on making the Department a minaret of guidance that nurtures sound moral and social values and preserve  the genuine Arab and Islamic values within a perspective that is part of the philosophy of the University and the Omani society
• Enabling students to acquire concepts and principles related to Special Education and how to deal with the talented and the disabled.
• Enabling students to acquire concepts and principles related to early childhood and how to raise children and deal with them
• Solving educational problems in the local environment and in the society in general as well as in the development of the educational work.