The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Program in the School of Teaching and Learning prepares top educators from across the United States and around the world for highly productive careers as educational researchers, teacher educators, and district, state, and national leaders. Through the combination of a rigorous curriculum and a supportive social environment, students become thoughtful, interdisciplinary scholars who investigate issues of learning and teaching in classrooms, schools, families, and other community contexts. Students enjoy extensive experiences working with Faculty on current research projects within a supportive, diverse, and vibrant intellectual community.

The Ph.D. program consists of three basic elements:

1. Initial Introduction to ‘Classic’ Researchers and Theorists in Core Course SeriesThe Core Course Series, generally taken in the first year of doctoral study, consists of a group of intensive learning experiences designed to provide all students with a critical introduction to “classic” or “must read” researchers from education and other important fields (e.g. sociology, psychology, philosophy, Women’s Studies). This initial Series helps students build a solid and broad intellectual foundation prior to pursuing more specialized study in later courses and experiences. It also creates an opportunity for first year doctoral students to form a diverse intellectual community with colleagues from a wide variety of specialization areas.
2. Intellectual Communities of Practice
   The Program faculty constitutes an electrifying intellectual community that maintains an on-going, ever-changing, critical dialogue about educational research, schooling, teaching, and learning. his thoughtful community of learning and teaching scholars includes a series of 9 interacting sub-communities that focus more explicitly on a given area of research and practice. These 9 Areas of Study are multidisciplinary in orientation and topical in focus, bringing together the best research and scholarship from multiple knowledge traditions (e.g. social sciences, humanities, arts) into articulate and challenging analyses of specific educational concerns. The Areas of Study are:
   1. Adolescent, Post-Secondary, and Community Literacies
   2. Foreign and Second Language Education
   3. Literature for Children and Young Adults
   4. Language, Education, and Society
   5. Multicultural and Equity Studies in Education
   6. Rethinking Early Childhood and Elementary Education
   7. Reading & Literacy in Early & Middle Childhood
   8. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education
   9. Social Studies and Global Education
3. Apprenticeship Model of Learning
   Doctoral students – as novice researchers and developing scholars – work on educational research projects under the close guidance and support of highly successful faculty researchers. The faculty-student apprenticeship relationship is the rich social context for passing on knowledge about the theories and practices of inquiry, for making explicit the kinds of thinking and analysis that contribute to the research process, and for the provision of interpersonal support for students’ intellectual and personal growth.