Educational Leadership for Teaching and Learning Doctoral Program Ed.D.
Course Descriptions
51-750 Introduction to Doctoral Studies (3 credit hours)
This course will introduce students to philosophical foundations of social science, critical perspectives on educational leadership, and scholarly writing and research.
51-760 History of American Education (3 credit hours)
This course traces the development of schooling in the US from the Common School movement and its antecedents to the present. It focuses diachronically on the dominant discourse that has provided the structure of thought for conceiving education as well as on for historically and socially locating those at the margins of that discourse. Major movements and trends in education will be therefore considered in their social, economic, and cultural contexts as a way to understand their “history.”
51-715 Foundations of Educational Inquiry (3 credit hours)
The aim of this course it to familiarize students with the major theoretical traditions in social science and to develop an appreciation of the diverse forms of knowledge included within social science. The course will introduce students to the major epistemological stances and theoretical perspectives that shape current social research as well as the philosophical origins of these schools of inquiry.
51-722 Ethical and Moral Studies in Education (3 credit hours)
Following Bernard Williams’ (1985) distinction between ethics and morality in Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, this course examines the social aspects of leadership in moral terms using major writers in the tradition of political philosophy. Students will examine the philosophical texts that argue for and question social justice as an orientation in education leadership. This course aims to ground a critical approach to educational leadership in philosophical texts.
51-737 Curriculum Theory (3 credit hours)
Curriculum Theory examines social and philosophical foundations of curriculum. It takes the position that curriculum as what students learn and the decisions made to determine it are never neutral and thus must considered from the values and beliefs that make curricular programs rational. This course assumes a strong knowledge of the historical aspects of curriculum but seeks to understand the function of curriculum theoretically.
51-745 Critical Pedagogy and Assessment (3 credit hours)
This course is built on the belief that both pedagogy and assessment should be used as tools of liberation. Following Peter McLaren, Joe Kincheloe, and Paulo Freire (among others), it uncovers ways in which both pedagogy and assessment are complicit in the oppression of some groups and individuals and then examines approaches for teaching and learning that enables students to both navigate and challenge social realities.
51-735 Qualitative Inquiry (3 credit hours)
This course is designed to build a theoretical underpinning for critical qualitative research, which will include examining what is meant by critical epistemology. As this theoretical base is built, students will also begin to examine and put into practice the tasks of critical qualitative research.
51-725 Conceptualizing and Designing Research (3 credit hours)
This course is designed to assist students in formulating, reformulating, and pursuing their own theoretically informed research. Students will explore relevant bodies of literature that will inform their research, begin to navigate the process of crafting their inquiry, and clearly articulate ways in which their proposed research will serve social justice.
51-745 Program Evaluation (3 credit hours)
Program evaluation is fundamentally a search for and claim about quality and can not be a value-neutral process. This course will approach program evaluation as a tool for social change where the values of social justice, equity, and emancipation are promoted. Students will study democratic, participatory, and critical theories of evaluation and explore the ethical dimensions of this work.
51-723 Theories of Cultural Difference in Education (3 credit hours)
Building on, yet going beyond typical discourses in diversity and education, this course examines a variety of theoretical schools of thought for the purpose of deepening understandings of cultural difference. These understandings will then be applied to the educative process in an effort to address marginalization and oppression.
51-765 Quantitative Inquiry (3 credit hours)
This course examines a variety of quantitative research designs and data collection and statistical analysis procedures appropriate to each.
51-738 Critical Perspectives in School Law (3 credit hours)
In this course, students will deepen their understanding of current school laws and legal issues. Critical legal theory will also be explored which asserts the law is a collection of beliefs and prejudices that legitimize the injustices of society.
51-743 Topics in Globalization and Education (3 credit hours)
This course attempts to critically examine globalization and its confluence with education from a LaSallian perspective. It considers the connection between globalization and education at a general level to begin with, then move to particular considerations within this confluence including popular culture, technology, postcolonialism, language, and “marketization” (Apple, 2005).
51-758 Economic Theories in Education (3 credit hours)
In this course, students survey the field of economics education literature and use microeconomic economic concepts for approaching educational issues in economic ways. Whereas economics has become largely descriptive, this course will include normative considerations as outlined by Amartaya Sen in Ethics and Economics. Thus, this course aims both to provide students with an understanding of educational economics literature and to provide a critical orientation towards educational issues using an economic perspective.
51-757 Policy Studies in Education (3 credit hours)
This course aims to make students familiar with the issues in policy studies and the literature that has developed to address those issues. In so doing, this course also aims to provide students with analytical tools for critically evaluating policy. Specifically, we will examine the ways in which schools intersect with the state and how interest groups and politics affect that intersection.
51-747 Organizational Theory (3 credit hours)
In this course students examine schools as institutions from an organizational perspective. It surveys the field of organizational theory that has largely developed in business in order to better understand how schools function the way they do by turning to studies in business about organizational structure and culture. Students will develop the tools to look at organizational behavior from a variety of perspectives, which will provide a basis for understanding the status quo of any organization and the dynamics for change.
51-746 Theories of Institutional Transformation (3 credit hours)
For more than three decades, the field of educational leadership has focused a great deal of attention on the problem of educational change, why teachers resist change, and why it is difficult to diffuse innovations and “scale up” reforms beyond pilot projects. This course will take a different approach where students will examine current educational reforms in relation to the crisis of American democracy, develop a critical perspective on educational leadership and educational transformation, and discuss what it takes to change the persistent patterns of differences in success among students grouped by race, ethnicity, culture, neighborhood, income of parents, or home language.
51-775 Dissertation Seminar (3 credit hours)
This course will support students in preparing, writing, and defending their dissertation proposal.
51-785 Dissertation (3 credit hours)
Students will be supported by their Dissertation Director and committee during the year they are working on their dissertation.
51-795 Dissertation Supervision (1 credit hours)
Students will be supported by their Dissertation Director and committee if their dissertation is not completed one year after the completion of their coursework.
