Ph.D. in Education

Curriculum

The 60-credit curriculum includes 12 credits of core courses, 21 research methods courses, and 12 credits of dissertation credits. Students will use the remaining 15 credits to delve deeply into a focus area that aligns with their career goals. With support from their faculty mentor, students will design a focus area that aligns with their scholarly trajectory. Visit our faculty page to learn more about our faculty and their areas of expertise.

CORE/Foundational Courses (12 Credits total)

  • EDP 600 Academic Reading & Writing for Doctoral Studies (3 cr)
  • EDP 610 Contemporary Issues in Educational Inquiry (3 cr)
  • EDP 611 Issues and Problems in Educational Inquiry (3 cr)
  • EDP 622 Societal Perspectives of Education (3 cr)

Research methods courses (21 credits total)

  • EDP 623 Research Design (3 cr)
  • EDP 612 Qualitative Research Methods in Education (3 cr)
  • EDC 684 The Analysis of Data: A Hands-On Qualitative Approach (3 cr)
  • EDP 613 Introduction to Quantitative Research (3 cr)
  • EDC 624 Applied Educational Quantitative Data Analysis (3 cr)
  • EDC 625 Engaged Research Apprenticeship in Education (3 cr)
  • Plus one additional advanced methods course. Options include but are not limited to:
    • EDC 685 – Survey Design (3 cr)
    • EDC 682 – Discourse Analysis in Education Research (3 cr)
    • Any other advanced methods course at URI

Dissertation Preparation and Research (12 credits minimum)

  • EDP 641 Doctoral Dissertation Research Seminar (3 cr)
  • EDP 699 Doctoral Dissertation Research (minimum 9 cr)

Focused Expertise (15 credits minimum)
Students have the opportunity to use 15 credits to delve deeply into a focus area that aligns with their career goals. With support from their faculty mentor, students will select 15 credits of courses that best align with their scholarly trajectory. With the goal of flexibility, students can design a program following any of the following paths:

  • Courses selected from an area of education within pre-existing graduate programs and courses (e.g., Elementary, Secondary, Higher Education/CSP, Adult Education, TESOL/BDL, Reading, Health and Physical Education).
  • Courses that focus on topic areas that cut across current programs to illuminate complex issues. For instance, students could focus on language, literacy, and culture, where they could combine courses to develop expertise in areas such as: TESOL and bilingual education, digital and arts-based literacies, reading, and dyslexia. Students could also focus on postsecondary education leadership, learning and development and combine pre-existing courses in education policy, college student personnel, and adult education. The possibilities for robust cross-field learning are endless.
  • Courses combined with independent study to focus on a particular educational niche. Like many other fields students, can opt to work with a faculty expert to develop a narrowly tailored focus that aligns with one or more faculty experts in the college (e.g., STEM education, Social Justice Education, etc.).