Ed.D. Program for Educational Leaders
The Cohort
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The cohort of approximately twenty-five doctoral students reflects an interdisciplinary focus and remains together during the program's four years of courses, field experiences, advisement sessions, and dissertation writing. The first three years of the program involve primarily theoretical study and practical applications of learning, and the fourth year focuses on dissertation completion. From the very beginning of the program, participants begin investigating important research questions that may lead to dissertation topics.
Typically, though not exclusively, the participants in the program's cohort come from the ranks of practicing school administrators. Cohort members complete sixty credit hours (including dissertation credit) on a four-year schedule. While it is hoped that cohort members complete dissertation work within the four-year timeline, a cohort member may petition for an extension. In no case will more than three years' extension be considered. All cohort members must complete all program requirements within seven years of entrance into the program.
The Community of Scholars
The St. Joseph's University faculty, the educational leader- practitioners, and the cohort form the 'community of scholars' and, as such, confront common problems, engage in cooperative work experience, and serve together in advisory groups in a collegial manner. This community of scholars design enables all members to transcend the typical teacher-pupil roles and to establish learning relationships and networks that endure beyond the duration of any one cohort's program experience.
This non-traditional relationship among faculty members, the educational leader- practitioners, and cohort participants ensures that the instructional delivery system is client-centered and often tutorial and advisory in nature. Instruction is driven by both theoretical and field-based problem investigation, and the identification of those problems is the responsibility of the cohort members to a large degree. The instruction demands an integration of theory and practice and equips members of the cohort with theoretical knowledge as a tool for field-based problem solving. Moreover, cohort members' research skills and ability to establish professional problem-solving networks are augmented through the computer links among IDEPEL participants and with databases and other information sources.
Local school districts benefit from this program by virtue of the preparation of a new generation of educational leaders, and by members of the community of scholars investigating and solving certain practical field-based problems. Program participants also serve in a "think tank" capacity for local school districts, Intermediate Units, educational associations, other human service agencies, as well as citizen and parent groups.