Education Leadership PhD

Welcome

The Ph.D. program in Education Leadership (Ph.D., EdL) provides a research-intensive doctoral program that supports the development of professors and researchers in PK-12 education leadership roles. Building upon Teachers College’s long-standing devotion to social justice, pioneering research, and cultivation of collaboration, students in the program will study, and research at the nexus of equity and social justice focused on school leadership and administration, adult development, data science, and organizational management and leadership. The coursework throughout the program accomplishes this by providing an innovative and unique core course of study that focuses on the current issues, theories, research, and methods in K-12 education leadership research and practice, which culminates in student independent research projects through their dissertation, advised by faculty.

The Ph.D. in Education Leadership is a 75-credit program housed in the Department of Organization & Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Program Mission

The program's mission is to support the development of professors and researchers of education leadership who will be prepared to grow aspiring and practicing school leaders and advance scholarship in the field. More specifically, the Education Leadership Ph.D. program:

• Sits at the nexus of national and global research, theory, and real-world practice.
• Equips students with the necessary skills to investigate and respond in socially just and equitable ways to critical issues in education leadership from multiple and diverse perspectives. 
• Focuses on building bridges between research and practice by employing qualitative, quantitative, and data science approaches.
• Supports and stretches aspiring scholars to redefine notions of education leadership, education leadership development, and education leadership research to care for future education. 
• Provides a supportive mentoring environment to develop critical thinkers, thought leaders, systematic and skilled researchers, and innovative scholars.

Faculty Recommendation on the Statement of Purpose 

Applicants are encouraged in their statement of purpose to please speak to specific projects that they've undertaken in education leadership that address the intersection of the central domains in the EdL PhD program. Additionally, we ask that applicants in their statement of purpose also work to articulate the core question(s) that are driving them to commit to the PhD in Education Leadership. These should be addressed through a focus on the intersection of three or more of the domains of 1) school and district leadership and administration, 2) equity and social justice, 3) adult development, and 4) data science, as applied to K-12 Education Leadership research, theory, and practice.