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Online Doctorate of Education With a Concentration in Curriculum and Instruction Leadership

Program Highlights

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Teacher with elementary school students

48 credit hours |  In-state tuition: $480.90/credit hour | Out-of-state tuition: $590.53/credit hour

  •  Available in an easily accessible 100% online format from ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ’s College of Education
  • Designed for individuals who wish to pursue professional doctoral studies focused on effective teaching and learning in K-12 settings 
  • Focuses on instructional leadership that advances culturally- and linguistically- sustaining and asset-based teaching practices
  • Can be completed in less than 36 months with no GRE required

PROGRAM ADMISSIONS REQUIREMENTS

Become an Educational Change Maker

The way children learn and grow today shapes their future tomorrow. Effective K-12 education benefits individual students—and it benefits families, communities and our society as a whole. The Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction Leadership is designed to produce scholar-practitioners who actively and effectively integrate academic knowledge (scholarship) and real-world professional experience (practice) to lead educational innovation in the changing landscape of today’s schooling. The program focuses on cross-disciplinary research and reflective practices related to teaching and learning, teacher education and mentorship, artificial intelligence-mediated curriculum development, and applied research methods across diverse K-12 contexts. 

This degree is perfect for:

  • Educational leaders/ Program directors
  • Curriculum Developers
  • Training and Development Specialists
  • Instructional Coordinators 

Students in this program will

  • gain advanced instructional leadership skills in Curriculum and Instruction
  • develop the knowledge and skills necessary for conducing applied educational research
  • help improve outcomes for students across the lifespan by optimizing approaches to teaching and learning 

Types of jobs students hold after graduation include:

  • Instructional coordinator
  • Curriculum/Program designer
  • Training and development specialist
  • Academic

Course Overview

Coursework is unique and includes

  • Practical assignments with pragmatic applications to schools and community educational settings
  • A mix of readings, videos, and multi-media resources
  • A cohort model that allow for deep engagement with classmates from diverse backgrounds, who speak a variety of languages, and who have experience engaging with students/families from diverse backgrounds 

To earn a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree in Curriculum and Instruction Leadership, you must successfully complete of 48 hours beyond a master’s degree of required coursework with a grade of “C” or better.

Doctoral Core Courses (18 Credit Hours Required)

Focus on leadership, acquire a comprehensive overview of leadership theories, models, and approaches that may be adopted by scholar-practitioners to promote educational change. Study various conceptions of leadership, issues of power and context, leadership styles, and the use of applied educational research to positively impact school/program culture while effectively guiding pedagogical improvement and innovation. Develop a leadership philosophy statement as scholar-practitioners and educational leaders.

Learning sciences represents an interdisciplinary field that examines how people learn to understand, reason, and solve problems in diverse and complex settings. Examine how learning sciences has and continues to evolve as a research field that informs practice through the design of effective learning environments across socioculturally mediated contexts. Engage with foundational field perspectives to interrogate such ideas as the goals of education, learning design features, and social and cultural influences.

Investigate pedagogical practices in light of the latest knowledge in educational research, psychology and neuroscience. Study the origin of common education-/neuro- myths as the justification of wide-spread teaching practices, as well as the most current state of the knowledge and its application. Through this exploration, gain the tools needed to critically evaluate past and current research for making informed pedagogical decisions.

Acquire a comprehensive overview of the means and uses of educational research. Examine the rationale/ assumptions of different qualitative and quantitative methodological choices; methods for data collection, analysis and interpretation; and issues related to research integrity and ethics. Gain the knowledge and skills necessary to critically evaluate existing empirical literature and related educational research claims.

Focus on the disciplinary and academic traditions of applied educational research, including the constructs of the scholar-practitioner and formal contextualized inquiries of practice. Explore academic thinking and writing, and the assumptions/requirements of applied research used to lead educational change and innovation. Engage your professional interests, expertise and relevant current research knowledge to define issues of pedagogical practice and to start formulating the basis for your individual empirical study

Acquire a comprehensive overview of the action research method. Emphasis is on its application for practice-based problem solving, designing and implementing effective action research inquiries, and how to use data for decision-making to address real-world problems/needs in educational settings. Gain skill in identifying action research questions, collecting and analyzing data, and interpreting/reporting results.

Curriculum and Instruction Specialization Courses (12 Credit Hours Required)

Critically examine how institutionalized power and ideologies shape curriculum and instruction. Focus on critical theories and research that link the purpose of schooling to a transformative vision of the world. Draw on current philosophical as well as historical perspectives to inform pedagogies by asking whose knowledge is legitimate.

Explore theories, research and best practices in leading teacher professional development. Study the continuum of professional learning, including (but not limited to) teacher learning and identities, conceptions of teachers and teaching, and the social contexts that shape teacher learning, with particular attention to teacher development in and for culturally and linguistically diverse contexts. Examine teacher learning in educational change efforts, and methods for related applied research inquiry.

Explore the major concepts of instructional design theory, and the role that Artificial Intelligence (AI) may play in both learning and in the design of instructional experiences. With a focus on practice-base application, it emphasizes current theories, models, and activities associated with the design of learning experiences, feedback cycles, and instructional environments utilizing evolving technologies. Gain the knowledge needed to responsibly and ethically use Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) for K- 12 curriculum evaluation, redesign and development.

CHOOSE ANY ONE COURSE

Explore foundational theories of language acquisition in educational practice in bilingual/ multilingual settings. Apply theories and research methodologies to study and explain empirical data in language acquisition. Examine language ideologies, tensions and dynamic debates in the fields of bilingual education, language acquisition, and literacy/biliteracy studies.

Explore the situational nature (place) of teaching and learning to understand the roles that community, social networks, micro-interactions, relationships, marginalization, and movement toward learning and empowerment play in identity and the practice of one’s identity. Learn how these understandings can provide insights into pedagogical leadership and innovation in linguistically diverse educational settings. Apply new understandings of the micro and macro pedagogical tools needed for effective place-based educational change.

Explore how new modes of communication in the digital age have transformed the ways in which children, youth, and adults engage in literate practice both inside and outside of school. Key topics include: the emergence of "new" literacies; multi-modality and meaning-making; media literacy; digital storytelling; and the integration of digital literacies into K-12 and community education programs. Special emphasis is placed on literacies of the U.S.-Mexico border and the literacy education of emergent bilinguals/English language learners.

Focus on language, race, and culture as co-constitutive forces that shape identities across educational contexts and communities. Building on sociolinguistic and anthropological understandings, incorporate the field of raciolinguistics to theorize race and culture through the exploration of language studies. Examine how the relationship between race and language may impact educational practices, and in turn, student identities.

Explore the research on pedagogical practices designed to engage and motivate students using such vehicles as toys, games, arts and sports. Use foundational concepts of learning in the fields of psychology, sociology and educational research as lenses for critically examining the current play-based and game-based learning literature. Examine a variety of issues related to play in human learning, as well as play-based pedagogical guidelines for diverse classroom settings.

Studies in designated area. May be repeated for credit when topic varies. Prerequisite: Departmental approval.

Research Design and Methodology Courses (6 Credit Hours Required)

Acquire a comprehensive overview of case study research methodology, applied as a mode of systematic observational inquiry to increase holistic understanding within a natural context of educational practice. Emphasis is on theoretical foundations and the affordances of using case study research designs, as well as protocols for implementing effective case studies. Gain skill in identifying case study questions, collecting and analyzing data, and interpreting/reporting results

Acquire a comprehensive overview of the data-driven secondary analysis approach to research using extant (already collected/publicly available) datasets, including methodological affordances and fundamental protocols. Emphasis is on how to best identify, obtain, and evaluate existing datasets. Gain skill in recognizing limitations in existing data, how to search data and refine research questions; managing and analyzing data; and interpreting/reporting results.

Doctoral Seminar (3 Credit Hours Required)

Outline the major components of your contextualized inquiry of practice study through the creation of a Dissertation in Practice proposal. Students are expected to demonstrate a range of academic skills, including the ability to: frame an applied educational research question; undertake a focused literature review; identify an appropriate conceptual lens and research design given the applied research  question; and define the type of analysis that makes possible the reaching of conclusions. Passing of this course qualifies students for doctoral candidacy.

Research Capstone (9 Credit Hours Required)

This doctoral capstone course provides the time and guidance needed for students to do applied educational research. Work under the advisement of their faculty committee to conduct a contextualized inquiry of practice study rooted in their interest and personal/professional context. Students must pass this course and subsequently enroll in and successfully complete their Dissertation in Practice in  TED 6384 to graduate.

This doctoral capstone course provides the continued time and guidance needed to do applied educational research and to disseminate the results. Work under the advisement of their faculty committee to finish their contextualized inquiry of practice study and to complete their Dissertation in Practice. Successful completion of this course through faculty approval of the Dissertation in Practice is a requirement for graduation.

CONNECT WITH US

The University of Texas at El Paso
¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ Online Programs
Kelly Hall, Ste. 115
500 W. University Ave.
El Paso, Texas 79968
E: utepconnect@utep.edu
P: 1-800-684-¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ