Arizona State University: Teachers College

CPED-Influenced Program

Doctor of Education in Leadership and Innovation

School/Department where the Program is Housed

Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College
Division of Educational Leadership and Innovation

Program Description

The Ed.D. in leadership and innovation is a 3-year program open to students who have a master's degree in education or a closely related field. It is a cohort program designed to equip educators to be scholarly and influential practitioners with the dispositions and skills to implement innovations, lead change and examine the impact of these on the workplace. Courses and signature pedagogies are designed to meet the needs of working professionals by integrating classes and using face-to-face and online learning, embedding leader scholar communities, requiring ongoing performance in Research Days, and culminating in an Action Research Dissertation.

Philosophy and Mission

The Ed. D. in Leadership and Innovation is designed to prepare educators as scholarly and influential practitioners. This terminal degree program is designed to equip educators with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions — with the minds, hands, and hearts — to resolve problems of practice and improve local situations. The goals of the Ed.D. in Leadership and Innovation are to prepare educators who can do the following:

Lead

• Render visions and plans for the future
• Act as agents of change in the service of others
• Maximize the contributions of all participants
• Anticipate responses to shifting educational circumstances

Uphold access and excellence

• Maintain high and positive expectations for learning
• Ensure equitable opportunities to meet and surpass rigorous academic standards
• Respond to the strengths and needs of culturally and linguistically diverse learners

Collaborate

• Build professional development communities of practice
• Partner with others inside and outside education to address mutual concerns
• Honor multiple perspectives

Apply ideas and information

• Direct scholarship wisely to problems of practice
• Examine the professional and research literature of education critically
• Employ information technology strategically
• Embrace systems as a perspective for interpreting local situation

Apply systematic inquiry

• Adopt action research as a stance for resolving local issues and for developing professionally
• Initiate cumulative action research that results in principled data-based decisions
• Apply theoretical frames, methodologies, and methods strategically

Admissions Requirements

• All requirements of the ASU Graduate College.
• A master's degree in education or a related field from a regionally accredited institution.
• Three letters from professional references.
• A current resume.
• A sample of professional writing.
• No GRE or other test is required.
• An Ed.D. admissions committee rates applicants according to five criteria: professional attributes, goals, and accomplishments, as well as academic writing and accomplishments.

Description of each year of the Program — number of courses, credits, time frame; core, specializations, dissertation/capstone

The Ed.D. in Leadership and Innovation requires 90 credit hours (including a Masters degree and 60 credit hours post-Masters), a Dissertation, and an Oral Comprehensive Exam.

See attached for sequence of courses.

• Professional core (12)
• Research core (9)
• Electives (18)
• Participation in leader scholar communities (6)
• Directed Field Studies (3)
• Comprehensive examination
• Dissertation (12)

Milestones Employed in the Program — comprehensive/qualifying exams, papers, or products necessary for graduation

Research Day: At the end of each semester candidates from the three cohorts come together to participate in Research Day during which they engage in poster sessions, roundtable discussions, and symposia presentations. These are opportunities for significant intellectual exchanges and community building.

Proposal Defense and Oral Comprehensive Examination: In the fourth semester of the program doctoral candidates are examined on their written dissertation proposal (including its content, rationale, implementation plan, and research plan), and their knowledge and understanding of the Professional Core, Research Core, and Advanced Professional Studies, especially as this knowledge applies to their proposed dissertation study.

The Doctoral Dissertation is an applied inquiry project that addresses a major issue the candidates face in their educational setting. The dissertation exemplifies Research in Action with the candidate being both the actor (leader of action) and the researcher.

The completed Dissertation includes: a targeted review and synthesis of relevant literature; an initiative, selected on the basis of published research, to address the identified problem; a research design that includes the collection of data, scheme of analysis, and framework for assessing the effects of the proposed action project; an analysis of data collected; a presentation of results and conclusions; and a discussion of the implications of findings for policy, practice, and research, as well as a discussion of the leadership lessons learned.

The public defense of the dissertation consists of an oral presentation followed by questions from the candidate’s doctoral dissertation committee.

Program's Support Structure

Students are admitted as a cohort, brought together through co-taught common coursework, grouped into smaller leader-scholar communities, and led to build community among overlapping groups. The program is guided by a Program Director, Program Coordinator, and Academic Success Coordinator (i.e., adviser).

Signature Pedagogy

Communities of Practice: The program emphasizes the ethos of a Community of Practice. All candidates contribute to the success of others in the program, drawing on mutual strengths, assisting in areas of need, and preparing for professional practice that depends on collaboration to reach its goals.

Action Research: Candidates learn to conduct research by carrying out increasingly more sophisticated studies in their workplaces. They address authentic problems and needs through innovation and action that is informed by scholarship. The research is embedded in coursework, supported through the community of practice, and culminates in the dissertation. An emphasis is on increasing independence and confidence in the conduct of research in action.

Laboratories of Practice

Students' laboratories of practice are their workplaces. The focus of this program is to produce leaders who will improve practice at their workplace through innovation. Students conduct cycles of action research in their workplaces as part of their coursework, beginning in the first semester.

Inquiry Courses

TEL 711: 3 credits—Strategies for Inquiry (Overview of qualitative and quantitative strategies)

TEL 712: 3 credits—Mixed Methods (Intro to mixed methods)

TEL 713: 3 credits—Applied Mixed Methods (Advanced mixed methods)

TEL 792: 9 credits total

• Directed Field Study (3 hours) allows the candidate to develop expertise in a particular area through the study of relevant professional and research literature and through interactions with educational, corporate, political, legal, health, and social leaders. Directed Field Study is taken during the Summer Session after Year 1.
• Leader-Scholar Communities (6 hours) meet during Year 2 to serve as thematic seminars and advisement support communities for doctoral candidates as they advance toward the doctoral dissertation. Both face-to-face and on-line communication and collaboration are used. (Although Leader-Scholar Communities do not meet formally for course credit during Year 3, they continue informally as support structures.)

Capstone

12 credits (2*6)—Action Research Dissertation

The action research doctoral dissertation is the capstone experience of the ASU Doctoral Program in Leadership and Innovation. Like this doctoral program itself, the action research dissertation is innovative and different from traditional Ph.D. and Ed.D. dissertations. The dissertation has the traditional five chapters; however, in this program, the dissertation study is the last of a series of action research studies conducted by the candidate. The action research doctoral dissertation is distinctive because of its interrelated purposes:

• The purpose of a doctoral candidate’s action is to make a positive difference in a local education setting in which the candidate currently is serving.
• The purpose of a candidate’s action research is to investigate the action systematically and methodically through a form of disciplined inquiry.
• The purpose of a candidate’s action research dissertation is to report the results of the investigation of the action to an external audience.

In general, the purpose of the action research dissertation in the ASU Doctoral Program in Leadership and Innovation is to report the consequences of a particular educational intervention. The purpose is not to fill gaps in the knowledge base of a scholarly discipline.

Syllabi

• Educational Research and Assessment Methods
• Mixed Methods of Inquiry and Innovation in Teaching and Learning

Key Contact Person

David Moore
David.Moore@asu.edu
602-543-6333

Cost Structure

Based on the current tuition and fee schedule, the cost of the three years of the program is approximately $33,000.

Program Handbook

ASU Program Handbook.

Program Link

http://education.asu.edu/node/272