School of Education, Health, and Society
Educational Leadership
Graduate Programs
The Department of Educational Leadership offers these graduate degrees and licensure programs:
Master’s degrees:
M.S., Student Affairs in Higher Education (SAHE)
This program prepares students for the student affairs profession. It combines a comprehensive curriculum and a variety of practical experiences. SAHE faculty and student affairs practitioners work cooperatively with students to design opportunities that allow students to pursue specific interest areas.
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M.Ed., Curriculum and Teacher Leadership (CTL)
This 30 hours M.Ed. is designed for K-12 teachers, graduate students interested in continuing in a doctoral program in educational
studies, and teaching professionals who work in educational
programs in the community and agencies. All classes are offered in the evening at the VOA and Oxford campuses.
Courses are offered in the area of curriculum, social foundations of education, leadership and research; a 9 hour concentration can lead to licensure in curriculum and instruction and professional development, a graduate certificate in women’s studies, and state designation as a Highly Qualified Teacher.
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M.Ed., School Leadership (SL)
This 33 credit-hour program is designed for educators with a minimum of three years of K-12 teaching experience who wish to become school principals or administrators. Courses are offered in a hybrid format—a blend of traditional class sessions and on-line components. The program structure allows teachers to complete their studies in two years of part-time enrollment while continuing to work full time.
EDL also offers courses that lead to licensure in curriculum and instruction and professional development, and the superintendency.
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Doctoral degrees:
Ph.D., Student Affairs in Higher Education (SAHE)
The program’s purpose is to prepare student affairs professionals to create and sustain higher education programs and contexts that promote learning for all students. The program's primary focus is student affairs roles as they are enacted in the context of higher education.
Ph.D., Educational Leadership, emphasis in Leadership/Culture/Curriculum
The Ph.D. program in Leadership/Culture/Curriculum is a program of culture-based educational leadership. We believe that educational leaders must work together to create socially just educational systems. We believe that educationalleadership encompasses knowledge of administration, curriculum, and the social, historical, and philosophical foundations of education. We believe that educational leaders must be able to integrate knowledge across educational fields and that they must be able to both execute and understand educational research, policy, and practice, across educational institutions, families, and communities.
The nature of education today defies the neat borders and boundaries that have characterized many education doctoralprograms in the past. Today, educational policy and politics make change the status quo. Schools increasingly work collaboratively with families, non-profits, and civil society organizations. Activism and entrepreneurship are taking on new forms in the ever-shifting world of education. Students are learning at home, at school, and through multiple forms of media. An integrated approach that embraces these new worlds of education and schooling helps prepare students for these new organizational and policy contexts.
The guiding mission of our doctoral program is to prepare educational leaders and scholars who are attuned to culture-based leadership and who are critically aware, politically and ethically discerning, and policy fluent.
Our PHD program in Leadership/Culture/Curriculum integrates the fields of educational administration, leadership, and curriculum with an emphasis on educational equity. The program is flexible enough to allow room for students to build expertise in their areas of interest, or to complete the requirements for an administrative license.
We approach leadership from a cultural perspective that seeks to prepare leaders for educational institutions. Culture-based theories examine the interplay and struggles of variousgroups within societies. We ask students to understand both howschools as organizations are presently constructed, as well as to deeply understand how education for the purpose of social justice might require fundamental shifts in thinking about students, families, neighborhoods and nation.
We believe that a doctoral program ineducational leadership that starts with questions of culture is far better equipped to help its graduates work for more socially just educational institutions and spaces. Cultural theories help to explain the differentials of wealth and status that strongly shape educational outcomes in our society. Cultural theories, moreover, enable educational leaders to more easily frame questions of democratic purpose and moral value within the educational contexts in which they are working. The seven principles orienting our department’s work help root the Leadership/Culture/Curriculum doctoral program curriculum within a substantive ethical vision of schooling appropriate for a diverse democratic society.
For a complete list of Ph.D. requirements, including course descriptions, click here.
Administrative and Curriculum Licensures
Our licensure programs prepare administrators to address the fundamental questions central to the reform of schools. The emphasis is on the teaching and learning process, the cultural and political context of schools, and the moral and ethical dimensions of schooling as well as a clinical dimension of professional practice. Our goal is to educate critical self-reflective leaders who can focus on creating schools capable of producing conditions conducive to learning for all students.
Our three licensure programs include:
Graduate Certificate: Family, School and Community Connections
In conjunction with the Department of Family Studies and Social Work, we provide a graduate certificate program in Family, School and Community Connections.
The four-course interdisciplinary program promotes family engagement as a strategy to improve strategic goals in schools and community organizations. It meets the needs of students to improve their knowledge and skills in community and relationship-building while providing flexibility in scheduling to those juggling careers and professional development.
Learn more about the Family, School and Community Connections graduate certificate program here.