Debby K's List: Graduate Programs

The Department of Educational Administration offers graduate degree programs in K-12 educational administration and in a number of specialties in higher education. In addition, the department offers programs leading to a variety of certifications. Many of the courses taught by members of the department are now available online and students interested in distance coursework should inquire.

The Ed.D. and Ph.D. in educational studies with a specialization in educational leadership and higher education is intended for those interested in higher education, human resource development, student affairs, or community college leadership. The Ed.D. and Ph.D. in educational studies with a specialization in architecture education is for students intending to teach in a university setting.

The Ph.D. in Education program produces leaders who can address the nation’s most pressing educational challenges. Each of the specializations is designed to match your professional interests and meet the needs of your organization. In fact, it requires educators to come to the program with defined learning goals and challenges them to design their own program of study. The program combines collaborative online study with self-paced, faculty-guided research modules and face-to-face residencies.

The Educational Leadership and Change (ELC) doctoral program offers an interdisciplinary, collaborative, customized and networked learning environment dedicated to fostering leadership for positive systemic change in learning systems.

The program is designed to enable teachers, community advocates and educational administrators to work in their respective communities while simultaneously developing new leadership skills and acquiring a postgraduate education. The program allows students to strategically confront the complex realities and challenges facing schools and colleges today and in the future. These educational challenges are examined from a broad-based systems perspective.

The Department of Educational Administration is recognized as providing graduate programs of distinction and is considered one of the most outstanding in the nation. In addition to higher education, specialization is offered in community college leadership, and public school executive leadership.

It has been noted that learning and development occur through the agency of other human beings. At different times, these other human beings may be parents, friends, school teachers, or university faculty. The education they provide may be not only in school classrooms, but also within families and communities, or in cyberspace. The Faculty of the Education Department is vitally concerned with these essential human transactions, how they occur, what effects they have, and what affects them. Our faculty also is vitally concerned to prepare the next generation of thinkers, leaders, and scholars in the several fields of education. In this pursuit, we want our students to understand not only education in school classrooms, but also, in the broader, and increasingly multicultural, multilingual, and digital world we occupy. So, our students explore different angles of vision; they observe the differing effects of schools and institutions, the mediating effects of culture and language, the facilitating or constraining effects of leadership and public policy, and the profound effects of human differences. Through its research and teaching, the faculty mentors each individual student, works to elevate them as educators, and inspires in them enduring commitments to learning, scholarship, and excellence.

The specialization in Language, Literacy, and Technology prepares scholars to carry out research in a broad range of areas related to language and literacy development, the use of information and communication technology in education, and the intersection of technology use and language/literacy development.

Students in this specialization will take course work on or independently investigate topics such as second language learning, reading and writing development, the use of computers and the Internet in language or literacy instruction, online learning, videogames and learning, and the development of information and multimedia literacy, focusing on both school and out-of school settings. Students in the specialization will have the opportunity to develop expertise in a broad range of research methodologies, from video case study to experimentation to ethnography to discourse analysis.

Applicants to this specialization will ordinarily have had prior coursework or experience in areas such as language learning, applied linguistics, TESOL, literacy, instructional technology, or educational media. We expect that graduates in this specialization will seek academic positions or research appointments in a wide range of fields or departments, such as education, English, applied linguistics, curriculum and instruction, educational technology, language and literacy, and TESOL.