Empire State University

The 54-credit Educational Doctorate (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership and Change is designed to prepare mid­-career practicing professionals to hold leadership positions in higher education, where graduates serve as change agents. The Educational Leadership and Change program uses a scholar-practitioner model, which starts with the assumption of self-directed, collaborative learning among researchers, practitioners, educators, and students to produce scholar­ practitioners. Scholar-practitioners apply their scholarship to practice being able to develop and create new knowledge which informs their work and the work of others (Shapiro, 2003).

Learning in a community of practice through cohorts is one of the central tenets of this program. It is facilitated through face-to-face and online interaction among students and faculty. Four residencies are held in total: a virtual residency at the start of the first year, followed by three two-to-three day residencies in person in May/June. These face-to-face meetings are held in Saratoga Springs and encompass workshops and course meetings. Each cohort constructs its community of practice throughout the program, learning together in embodied and integrated ways, and is supported by an innovative programmatic e-learning space. A sense of shared commitment and responsibility is nurtured over time. This cohort provides an environment for this model of learning to occur. Students culminate their program with a directed research project based in their own site of practice or directed at issues in their field.

Most of the Ed.D. program is delivered online asynchronously. In addition, the program is supported by four required cohort residencies which provide interpersonal experiences, and access to a community space that supplements the online course work.

The first cohort residency is typically held at the start of the first term, followed by a short in-person residency in May/June at the end of years one, two and three.