Education Doctoral

This course is the second part of a two-semester practicum

This course is the second part of a two-semester practicum.

Students must have (1) their final dissertation approved by the APA editor in the semester in which the students will graduate and (2) a bounded dissertation copy must be in the Ethical Leadership Doctoral Program Office in order to have the EDD degree conferred. If a student does not meet the requirements listed above, (1) the student will not have his/her degree conferred; (2) the student must enroll in an EdD Dissertation Continuation Course. The student will enroll in the EDUC 8199 EdD Dissertation Continuation course for a maximum of three semesters. The EdD Dissertation Course is a one credit hour tuition bearing course; however, the student must pay all student fees for each semester in which he/she is enrolled.

This course is designed to provide the student with a broad understanding of the political and economic forces that influence equitable acquisition and management of human, fiscal, and information resources. The role of ethics in policy development and behaviors of educational and private sector institutions throughout the budgetary cycle is explored. The ethical dimensions of leadership will further be examined through both traditional and nontraditional paradigms. Students will reflect on personal ethical stances, examine the influence of ethics and values on decision-making, and analyze and critique ethical issues in a variety of contexts to frame their professional ethical perspectives.

This course explores the qualities of an ethical leader and an ethical organization. Students will develop perceptions of self in relation to trust, respect, integrity, honesty, fairness, equity, justice and compassion in action using faith and reason. Students will develop the ability to build cross-cultural relationships across multiple constituents for the purpose of improving student and/or constituency performance, promoting social justice, and building community.

This course is designed to engage students in the analysis of structural issues involved with diversity, equity, access, and excellence in complex organizations. Students will reflect and examine topics such as race and ethnicity, class, gender, language, and disability as they relate to equity. Students will gain knowledge and skills to effect positive changes in their respective organizations. Students will develop the ability to build cross-cultural relationships across multiple constituencies for the purpose of impacting student/employee performance, promoting social justice, and building community. By studying current research on diversity and equity, candidates will learn to advocate and promote excellence in educational institutions and complex organizations.

This course consciensitizes leaders to see beyond the four walls of their organization and examine the U.S. as a ‘nation of immigrants’ and the complex interactions of a linguistically and culturally pluralistic society in the USA. A focus is placed on individuals discarded by the global economy. This course aims to achieve the following: a) Reflect on the moral and ethical issues raised by examining their personal beliefs in relationship to social justice teachings to address and mitigate inequities; b) Examine, through Critical Pedagogy Lens, the decisions institutions make that perpetuate inequalities and disenfranchise individuals; and c) Advocate for all people through systematic change that promotes success for all stakeholders.

This course examines the complex and multifaceted phenomenon of globalization concomitantly with qualities of 21st century leadership. Through a backdrop of social justice tenets and cultural sensitivity, this course surveys the personal qualities of leadership needed for change advocacy for a just and fair humanity and communities. Focusing on navigating the external environment in order to be an effective global leader, the student explores the qualities of globalization and its challenges, personal qualities of global leadership and ethical practices, and the ongoing assessment of the external environment for effective global leadership.

With an emphasis on human dignity and social movements for justice, this course surveys social justice through an examination of multiple perspectives, education theory, research and practice in historical and ideological contexts. Making the theoretical and conceptual argument that social justice matters, students explore primary themes of social justice such as: international perspectives of social justice, race, ethnicity, language, gender, sexuality, social inequalities as well as the politics of social justice. Students also investigate the role of power in society, which serves to produce inequalities in the abilities of individuals and social groups to define and realize their needs.

This course examines the external challenges and trends facing contemporary human resource management and the importance of aligning human resource strategy, goals, performance, and budget with organizational strategy, values, and culture. Students will examine the role of HR in an organization’s competitive advantage and sustainability and the relationship of human capital management with long-term strategic success.

This course examines the process of identifying, retaining, and developing talent to accommodate organizational growth and restructuring as well as employee separation, promotion, and retirement. Key themes discussed are training, development, career planning and management, and replacement management.

This course examines current theories and practices of human resource management and the importance they play in organizational competitiveness, effectiveness, and sustainability. Attention will be given to central issues such as recruitment, selection, training, evaluation, compensation, and retention.

This course examines the purpose and practice of assessment as well as the central issues relating to quality assurance, improvement, and the alignment of policy and mission to the evaluation and assessment of academic and non-academic programs. Data management, accreditation, programmatic alignment, and the development of outcomes and measures will all be examined.

This course examines legal issues relating to employee management with attention to precedent and regulatory guidelines at the state and federal level. Students will study central issues related to employment law, obligations and workplace rights, conflict management, dispute resolution, and employee benefits.

This course focuses on various contemporary theories and models of leadership in student affairs as well as key issues relating to student engagement and success, including the development and oversight of programs and services as well as resource management, enrollment, advising, and counseling.

This course examines the history of higher education leadership and administration in the United States as well as the philosophies that have guided the development and evolution of these institutions. Students will analyze models and contemporary theories of leadership as well as challenges and trends.

Strategic management is the process of setting goals, procedures, and objectives in order to make a company or organization more competitive and innovative. Strategic management has a history that dates to antiquity. Students in this course gain knowledge about strategic management and leadership by studying historical examples of successful and unsuccessful organizational strategies. This course examines the evolution of strategic management in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

This course examines key theoretical problems regarding leadership that have occupied moral and political thinkers from Plato and Aristotle to St Thomas Aquinas and the American Founders: The second half of the course will look at leaders in action, charting the efforts of politicians, intellectuals, grassroots activists, and moral and spiritual leaders to respond to the challenges of their time and shape the worlds in which they live.

This course engages students in critical analyses of organizational policy at the local, state, national and international levels. Policy structures and processes are examined to understand how inequities are perpetuated in systems. In addition, examination of advocacy behind ethical consequences, moral dilemmas, social justice and equity issues resulting from policy are closely analyzed. Students will understand how public policy is generated using critical thinking and analytic reasoning in examining a current problem and recommending policy-framing skills for continued renewal and change for the betterment of institutions.

This course investigates the complex and rapidly changing nature of technology and how the digital divide impacts organizations and society in the 21st Century. The digital divide represents the gap between underprivileged members of society such as the poor, rural, elderly, and individuals with disabilities sectors of the population who do not have access to computers or the Internet. An introduction to the study of technology leadership with an emphasis on leaders developing a shared vision, planning, and promulgating policies and utilizing resources for the comprehensive integration of technology to address the digital divide are addressed. Learned skills include technology planning and leadership that incorporate instructional design, curriculum integration with standards, logistics of technology implementation, professional development, and the modeling of responsible digital citizenship. Students will develop an understanding of how to create and support technological change through a systems approach by learning management systems, social media, webinars, image repositories, and document sharing.

This course invites students to consider leadership as a personal and cultural vocation rooted in the integration of life, knowledge, and action. Drawing from the Catholic intellectual tradition, classical sources, and interdisciplinary insights, students will explore how the fragmented nature of modern life—divided by specialization, relativism, and disconnection—calls for leaders who model a unity of life. Emphasis is placed on cultivating moral imagination, synthesizing knowledge across disciplines, and practicing habits of reflection and action. Students will engage great texts, case studies, and personal discernment to develop a model of leadership that serves the common good and embodies integrity, wisdom, and purpose.

This course examines the historical roots of Christian education beginning with the development of ancient Greek schools through the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. Special attention is paid to the acquisition of Greek wisdom and the development of the trivium. Topics and figures include Augustine, the cathedral schools, the rise of the liberal arts, and certain modern trends.

This course introduces students to the Catholic notion of social justice, rooted in Catholic social teaching and the Catholic tradition of theological and political thought, offering comparisons to various secular models. The anthropological foundations of social justice will be stressed, and students will read widely in the tradition, from ancient writers to modern encyclicals.

Teaching and Learning introduces students to different philosophies of education, considering teaching methodology and the ways in which students learn, drawing on both classical and modern pedagogies. Topics include the student-teacher relationship, memory, experience, outcomes, cultural sensitivity, the role of different teaching and learning styles, and the importance of the liberal arts.

This course is an exploration of the history of education in America from the colonial era to the present day, focusing on key players, essential movements, and underlying philosophical concepts.

This course examines the nature and function of administrative leadership, emphasizing the concept and practice of human relations management, through a study of models of organizational culture and administrative leadership. Special attention is paid to the theory of management as well as conflict management and project and strategic management.

This course examines financial and facilities management. Topics include developing and overseeing budgets, financial forecasting, and maintaining streams of resources. Also, students study facilities management, needs assessment, and construction management, as well as learn to asses and address other related needs.

This course focuses on how organizations change and the role of leadership in organizational transformation by examining models and causes of change. Institutional analysis and the mobilizing of resources are treated as well as the nature of institutions themselves. Especially emphasized are the change implementation process, necessary leadership qualities, and the leadership theory that undergirds change, both institutional and individual.

This course navigates the student through the proposal development process. With a focus on describing the problem statement, critically exploring the multiple perspectives in the literature and presenting a discussion on the appropriate methodology to conduct inquiry. During this course, the student demonstrates a command of both the topic area and the methodologies involved in conducting the research project. The student is guided to bring together the knowledge, skills and insights to develop a full dissertation research proposal. This course is designed to ensure the research design includes scholarly references, demonstrates a thorough understanding of research design and analysis, and clearly identifies the gap in the literature that is being addressed with the research.

This course focuses on descriptive and quasi-experimental methods design with mention of experimental design. Students learn the purpose, appropriate research questions and hypotheses associated each method, and strengths and weaknesses of each method.

This course examines the qualitative strategies of inquiry (case study, participatory action research, interpretive practice and social action, grounded theory, narrative theory, ethnography, clinical research) and acquaints students with various qualitative designs and methods. The course will familiarize students with the debates around qualitative inquiry; address ethical dimensions of doing qualitative studies; and students will explore methods for collecting and analyzing qualitative data by conducting a small-scale study.

This course provides a survey of fundamental descriptive and inferential statistics through an introduction of basic concepts and terminology, including chi-square, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation, and regression analysis. Using statistical software as an analytical tool, students investigate educational issues and phenomena applying a variety of statistical methods resulting in understanding the difference between significance and meaningfulness of data.

This course introduces the student to a way to integrate both quantitative and qualitative methods to study complex research questions that require a multi-faceted, multi-perspective approach. Students learn how mixed methods complement each other and be able apply mixed methods approaches to data collection and analysis

This course presents an in-depth examination of federal law and state law as they relate to both public and private schools. Topics will include basic legal concepts, relevant court cases, identification of resources, and the application of principles to the crafting of policies and procedures.

This course examines the nature of the human person, which constitutes the foundation of leadership theory. Students will study the mind, will, passions, imagination, and memory. Central to this study will be the pursuit of virtue and authentic human flourishing. This course draws on the ancient and proved sources of human experience, especially found in the works of Thomas Aquinas.

This course examines the central legal issues relating to organizational leadership, including the identification of resources and the application of principles to the crafting of policies and procedures, educational law, tort, communication and contract liability, as well as issues relating to methods of dispute and and conflict resolution, including negotiation, advocacy, and mediation.

Strategic management is the process of setting goals, procedures, and objectives in order to make a company or organization more competitive and innovative. Strategic management has a history that dates back to antiquity. Students in this course gain knowledge about strategic management and leadership by studying historical examples of successful and unsuccessful organizational strategies. This course examines the evolution of strategic management in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, but also probes the less discussed sources of strategy in the Ancient world (Greece, Rome)

Interdisciplinarity and leadership examines the complex interplay of experience and formal learning that inform exemplary leadership. Students learn to synthesize learning from a wide array of sources, and integrate such learning with their personal experience to make prudent and wise decisions.

The purpose of the residency is to provide students the opportunity to increase their knowledge and understanding of the areas they encounter in practical and problem-filled situations in everyday practice. It is a supervised field-based experience on engaging the mission of the organization, centering on systemic reform, strategies organizations can use to advance the goal of equity, and financial planning and budgeting to maximize use of resources. In addition to being enrolled in graduate school, a student must include activities approved by his/her doctoral advisor that are both research and scholarly based. A final reflective paper will be submitted at the end of the residency.

The purpose of the residency is to provide students the opportunity to increase their knowledge and understanding of the areas they encounter in practical and problem-filled situations in everyday practice. It is a supervised field-based experience on engaging the mission of the organization, centering on systemic reform, strategies organizations can use to advance the goal of equity, and financial planning and budgeting to maximize use of resources. In addition to being enrolled in graduate school, a student must include activities approved by his/her doctoral advisor that are both research and scholarly based. A final reflective paper will be submitted at the end of the residency.

This course examines central legal issues relating to organizational leadership, including the identification of resources and the application of principles to the crafting of policies and procedures, educational law, tort, communication and contract liability, as well as issues relating to methods of dispute and conflict resolution, including negotiation, advocacy, and mediation.

In this class, students will be introduced to the EdD dissertation, examining all the major components and stages of the process, including the various chapters, IRB and proposal defense, and data collection and analysis, as well as APA formatting.

Data analysis – Based on the findings, the student revises Chapters I and II as necessary. Student writes Chapter 4.

Dissertation completion and final defense – Student finalizes Chapters 1-4 and writes and revises Chapter 5. Student successfully defends dissertation and revises as necessary.

In this class, students will work with their chair to write their EdD dissertation. The chair will guide the student through the writing of all five chapters as well as IRB and proposal defense, data collection and analysis, and final submission and defense.

The purpose of this course is to afford students an opportunity for self-directed inquiry. Designed as an academic transaction between individual students and instructors, the students read assigned materials, prepare papers, or engage in projects and report frequently to the instructor of record. Independent study is deliberately arranged to promote the student’s self-direction and independence in conducting scholarly work. This course will require approvals prior to enrolling as outlined in Independent Study Guidelines.

This course is the first part of a two-semester practicum. EDUC 8391 focuses on the internal and external communication in a school community and the variety of special programs found in the district. The practicum will be guided and supervised by university faculty and school district administrators. Prerequisite: Recommendation of faculty advisor.

This course is the first part of a two-semester practicum. EDUC 8392 focuses on the district-wide aspects of the following: leadership of the educational community, community instructional leadership, and administrative leadership. The practicum will be guided and supervised by university faculty and school district administrators. Prereq: Recommendation of faculty advisor