Teacher leadership
Department of Teaching & Learning
Statewide education doctorate (Ed.D.)
The statewide Ed.D. with a specialization in teacher leadership is designed to prepare K-16 teachers and teacher leaders for intellectual and practical leadership within classrooms, schools, districts, and the larger educational policy arena. The program is built on an inquiry stance: Students draw from theory, research, and practical experiences to investigate local and statewide teaching and learning programs and practices. Goals for Ed.D. students include generation of applicable knowledge as well as practical recommendations and solutions for complex educational problems, including those related to equity and diversity. Coursework will center on a series of both collaborative and individual projects that build from critical examination of participants’ work and contexts. Program participants will broaden their capacity for instructional and programmatic leadership in both formal and informal roles within schools, districts, and educational communities. As part of a larger Ed.D. program, the teacher leadership specialization will also provide students with opportunities to collaborate with educational professionals in educational administration and from community colleges.
The curriculum
Research strand (15 credits, five courses)
Research in the Ed.D. program will be infused in all courses and will include a minimum of 15 credits in research methodology. Throughout the program, the emphasis is on helping working professionals to develop an inquiry stance toward the problems of and possibilities for education in their own settings, and to pursue inquiry through collaboration and leadership. The goals for the research strand include enabling students to be critical consumers of research, skilled analysts who are able to interpret, report, and make practical applications of data sets (e.g., WASL scores, AYP, etc.), and competent researchers who are prepared for their dissertation work, including understanding the principles of research design, multiple methodologies, interpretation of data and findings, and writing skills appropriate for academic work. Three of the five courses are shared across the three statewide Ed.D. specializations; two are specific to the teacher leadership specialization.
Foundations of Education (6 credits, two courses)
All students in the College of Education’s Ed.D. programs will take a course in the history of education and education reform and another focusing on diversity, race, and culture, both examining issues at all (p-20) levels of schooling.
Teacher Leadership Core (15 credits, five courses)
The Teacher Leadership Core will provide a common framework from which to examine past and current practices. All participants will begin their programs with a course on inquiry into teaching. All will additionally complete study in adult learning to contextualize research and leadership practice. Students will select at least three additional courses that provide a current understanding of content knowledge from the following disciplines: curriculum theory, language (ESL) and literacy, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education, special education. This knowledge will serve to both frame and support students’ inquiries in the research courses and summer session core courses as well as in the dissertation.
Electives (six credits)
Electives provide students the opportunity to
“customize” their Ed.D. Students may
take courses in school administration or additional
discipline-specific courses from the Teacher Leadership
Core. They may also opt for graded internship
credits.
The courses will include a field-based, action
orientation. With a focus on the diverse contexts
of practicing professionals, participants will work
collaboratively and individually to examine personal
and institutional challenges through the lenses of
current research, policy analysis, and opportunities
for change. Because participants from the ELCP
department’s two statewide Ed.D. specializations
will share some of the same courses, the program
additionally offers cross-specialization and
collaboration opportunities as well as efficiencies to
departmental scheduling and staffing options for
courses.
The summer institutes
In summers I and II (required), participants will take two complementary, core courses. During the first summer, required for program initiation, students will take Research in Teaching (focused on participants’ own questions about the profession based on personal experience) and Action Research. These courses will be intertwined around the concept of individual and large-scale change in education. During the second summer, students will take Program Evaluation and Adult Learning & Development, which will both explore how programs and policies interact with teacher professional development as well as broader adult development issues. The third summer is optional and will provide time to complete elective courses on various campuses. During Summer IV (required), students will work on comprehensive exams and dissertation proposals/research. It is possible for students to move through the program by participating in four consecutive intensive summer experiences and four years of part-time coursework and research during the academic year. It is also possible for students to move more slowly through the program. Note that the Graduate School requires that doctoral students finish their programs within ten years.
Comprehensive exams
Participants will formally work on their comprehensive exams during Summer IV. The exam will require a final product that facilitates development of the dissertation proposal.
The dissertation
Participants will choose from several organized, statewide research projects (reflecting research needs identified by the state’s school district leaders) as topics for their dissertations or they may elect an individualized project. Possibilities could include more traditional written dissertations, to piloted curriculum products, to film. Regardless of the format selected, underlying learning outcomes of the final product will be similar and will include clear reflection of major learning themes from the Ed.D. program.
Learning outcomes
Goals and objectives of the doctoral programs in
Teaching & Learning
The goals of all doctoral programs in the Department are three:
- To guide students in their development as professionals in their chosen fields related to teaching and learning.
- To prepare students to be skilled and knowledgeable educational researchers/consumers of research.
- To establish themselves as highly successful programs that are recognized for the quality of their graduates and their statewide/national/international visibility.
The objectives associated with each goal are these:
- To guide students in their development as
professionals in their chosen fields related to
departmental expertise. The programs
- provide students with effective mentoring.
- provide students with a variety of options for meeting their individual goals (coursework, internships, teaching/research assistantships, independent research opportunities, etc.).
- provide students with opportunities to grow into effective researchers and disseminators of research.
- To prepare students to be skilled and knowledgeable
educational researchers/consumers of research.
Program graduates
- locate, analyze, and synthesize research literature, and apply that synthesis to problems of practice and/or theory.
- effectively communicate scholarly work through written, oral, and/or alternate formats.
- skillfully inquire into areas of program-related interest.
- develop scholarly habits of curiosity, inquiry, skepticism, and data-based decision making.
- conduct and disseminate original scholarship that demonstrates acquisition and application of new knowledge and theory.
- become emerging experts in their area of study.
- To establish itself as a highly successful program
that is recognized for the quality of its graduates and
its statewide/national/international visibility.
The programs
- attract, secure, and retain high quality students.
- graduate students who are satisfied with the professional preparation they have received.
- graduate students who attain appropriate employment.
- maintain an excellent on-time graduation record.
- are delivered by a high quality graduate faculty that actively contributes to the program and scholarship that adds to the knowledge base of one of the program specializations.
The Statewide Education Doctorate (Ed.D.)
Program Course Requirements
Category and Courses |
Required Credits |
|
Research
|
15 graded |
|
Foundations Core
|
6 graded |
|
Teacher Leadership
Select at least three:
|
15 graded |
|
Electives, possibilities include coursework in the following:
|
6 graded |
|
Subtotal of Graded Credits (Minimum of 42 required) |
42 |
|
T&L 800 Research Credits, ungraded (Minimum of 20 required) |
20 |
|
Additional credits (graded or ungraded) |
10 |
|
Total |
72 |
*Required and shared courses across EdD
specializations of Teacher Leadership, Educational
Leadership (Administration), and Higher Education
Leadership
**Required Teacher Leadership specialization
course
A maximum of nine (9) transfer credits may be used
toward the graded credit total.
Participants are required to participate in a minimum of three intensive two-week Summer Institutes. The Institute location will, for the immediate future, be in Pullman.
