Educational Counseling and Leadership

Educational Counseling and Leadership

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) Educational Leadership

The Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership program at Monmouth University will provide a rigorous experience in leading transformational change in schools. To foster transformative leadership, this program will use a practice-based approach to professional learning and development. By practice-based approach, it is meant that learning will occur through experience and reflection, a process that involves both doing and thinking. In an experiential model of learning, thought is generated through actions that occur as part of lived experiences.

The purpose of the Monmouth University Ed.D. is to develop leaders who are skilled in both practice and theory of leadership during the change process. The curriculum is designed around a transformational leadership project that involves designing, piloting, and implementing an initiative that will have a transformational impact on student learning, faculty development, and leadership at the school district level. This project will enable doctoral candidates to create significant positive change in their schools while completing coursework under the guidance of faculty in educational leadership.

It is anticipated that most doctoral candidates will select and design a project that supports his or her professional setting. The project will be accomplished using an iterative, design-based approach to design and research that begins with a small pilot that will grow into a larger project across a two-year period. During that time, doctoral candidates will be researching, developing new ideas, and redesigning their projects based on the professional literature and data analysis.

The Ed.D. in Educational Leadership is a two-year, 54-credit hour program that is intended to provide doctoral candidates with new ways of thinking and reflecting about school change so they can become leaders in educational innovation.

Graduates of the Ed.D. in Educational Leadership program will be prepared to:

  • create processes that foster continuous human learning and development
  • use transformational leadership to promote progressive change
  • implement and institutionalize transformational change
  • use design-based research to reshape educational practice and theory
  • develop the analytical thinking skills necessary to review and improve change processes

Courses will be offered in a hybrid format, offering the advantages of face-to-face instruction with the convenience of online access.

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) Educational Leadership - Higher Education Track

This program intends to address the wide spread need for leaders in higher education, who are prepared to lead initiatives across the vastly diverse departments on a higher education campus . A doctoral degree in higher education leadership would give students some much-needed preparation to “do” education in profoundly innovative ways. This degree will provide students seeking leadership positions across all higher education settings the ability to achieve a terminal degree, which will open opportunities for advancement in their perspective higher education departments.

Graduate Endorsements

Graduate endorsements are programs designed for teachers and counselors who wish to change specialties or enhance their skills in dealing effectively with diverse populations in the schools. Students may earn graduate endorsements without matriculating into a master's degree program. Post-master's endorsements require a master's degree as a prerequisite. All programs are approved by the New Jersey State Department of Education.