Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Leadership
The Ph.D. degree program in Educational Leadership is designed to help our students prepare to become researchers, scholars, and professors in the 21st century. The program will equip our students who desire to examine issues and trends with designing and implementing educational strategies across private and public sectors of PK-12, higher education, the military, and corporate learning organizations. Students will work to acquire skills to ethically address the complex problems within educational practice using data-driven decision-making and other theoretical frames linking systematic inquiry with innovative, research-based solutions.
Graduates of the Ph.D. program are expected to demonstrate effective research skills, data compilation and analysis, scholarly writing, and presentation, which are assessed through successful doctoral level dissertation defense and publication.
The PhD program in Education is offered 100% online in an asynchronous format through the Trident Learning Community (TLC) learning management system.
Educational Leadership Program Mission
Our mission is to support the development of educational leaders who will be prepared to cultivate aspiring and practicing school leaders while advancing scholarship in the field. More specifically, our PhD program in Educational Leadership:
- Focuses on educational research, theory, and real-world practice.
- Builds bridges between research and practice by employing qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches.
- Equips students with the critical skills to examine, design and implement strategies to address diverse issues across private and public sectors from multiple, diverse perspectives.
- Provides a supportive, mentoring environment to develop critical thinkers, thoughtful leaders, problem solver, and innovative scholars.
- Mentors aspiring educational leaders who can address the complex problems using data-driven decision-making strategies with innovative, research-based solutions.
Program Learning Outcomes
Trident’s Educational Leadership Program outcomes guide and direct the curriculum and instruction and provide standards that educational leaders must meet if they are to manage change and create collaborative action. We strive to prepare educational leadership candidates who can meet the following objectives in terms of demonstrated Knowledge, Skills, and Values.
Upon successful completion of their respective program specialization, the graduate should be able to:
- Synthesize a broad, integrative knowledge of educational history, theories, research, and practice to inform educational practice.
- Lead collaborative scholarly activity or research to construct knowledge that advances educational theory or practice.
- Formulate and conduct theoretically grounded and methodologically-sound educational research that contributes to the scientific, educational, or professional knowledge base.
- Integrate relevant technology to conduct and analyze educational research.
- Synthesize assessment data, scientific research, or assessment metrics to inform practice in the field of education.
- Analyze challenges with diversity and equity in educational research and theory to advance equitable practice.
- Apply ethical behavior, standards, and decision-making to research and practice in accordance with the ethical and legal standards of the profession.