Academics

Over the 2020-2021 academic year, the UW Tacoma EdD program underwent significant changes to center social justice and revisit the pre-existing framework in place. We are excited to offer the updated EdD values and course titles that center anti-racism and de-coloniality at the heart of what we do. 

The Educational Leadership Program is designed as a 123-credit three-year, cohort-based doctorate. For those who wish to earn the P-12 Superintendent certificate, 6 additional credits (for a total of 129) are required in order to meet all state competencies.

EdD coursework areas:

• Foundational courses (including community grounded leadership, anti-racist and de-colonial frameworks, critical pedagogies, and revolutionizing leadership)
• Decolonial research series (decolonizing writing and oral praxis, introduction to decolonizing research, applied decolonizing research, de- and re-constructing relational research, and proposing relational research)
• Content area courses (human capacity, education law and governance, leadership for healing, funding inequities, critical approaches to student development, disrupting and dismantling and relational learning in praxis) 

Coursework includes leadership courses, specialization courses for the three study options (P-12 Educational Leadership, Higher Education Leadership, and Community Leadership), and courses in research and inquiry (see above). During the second year of study, students participate in community grounded praxis for leadership development directly related to employment or desired professional areas of growth. Based upon conversations with current supervisors or mentors, students design leadership activities to expand leadership capacity beyond that of current employment.

In the final year of study, students complete a field-based dissertation in practice, which is a year-long project in which  students address a tangible problem of practice related to social justice, antiracism, and/or decoloniality. This must be a project outside of the student’s normal work expectations. Specifically, it should demonstrate leadership at a higher level than that of current employment. It must include components of: program evaluation, literature review of extant research and policy, data collection and analysis, proposal for program improvement or other actions, and implementation of proposed solutions. A comprehensive report including all of the above will be written and delivered to the University as well as to the organization/community it is connected to. In addition, a publishable article, based on the problem of practice and actions, will be completed.