The EdD in Curriculum, Culture, and Communities (3Cs) is designed within a social justice framework across schools and communities to prepare educators, community organizers, faith-based leaders, nonprofit leaders, and others to take on new challenges as socially-just educators and researchers in institutions of higher education, schools, and communities. The targeted audience of the program will be:
- Current teachers
- Those seeking positions in preparing future teachers in the university (teacher educators)
- Non-profit organization leaders and educators (CSI resource coordinators, stakeholders, community activists)
- Faith-based organization leaders and educators (including priests, pastors, sisters, and other laypeople)
- Professions that involve education and professional development in their organizations (medical professionals, social work, legal, law enforcement, environmental studies, etc.)
- University staff/professionals
Enduring Understandings & Program Outcomes
MEd & EdD in 3Cs is founded upon six enduring understandings (EUs)
EU1: Theories and Practices about Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Policy
Students will develop understandings of curriculum, pedagogy, and policy and apply knowledge on transformative curriculum and pedagogy for innovative policy in the local, state, national, and international educational contexts to advocate with and for students, families, and communities.
EU2: Ecology of Communities
Students will understand that effective educators comprehend the historical, political, socioeconomic, and cultural realities and funds of knowledge of local communities as well as relationships, practices, and systems. Further, students will understand that effective educators seek to engage multiple stakeholders toward creating that promote equity and social justice of society’s most vulnerable groups.
EU3: Research, Evaluation & Change Practices
Students will understand and use appropriate and rigorous research methods (e.g., qualitative, mixed, quantitative) and research types ( e.g., basic, action, evaluation) to investigate critical questions that contribute to the development and improvement in instructional practices, transformative curriculum, and the improvement of relationships across school, community and university settings. Emphasis will be placed on the use of participatory and collaborative research approaches.
EU4: Critical perspectives on Language, Culture, and Literacy
Students will understand and apply an approach to language and literacy that is heteroglossic, a view of language and literacy as dynamic, and an understanding of the acquisition of language and literacy as a process that occurs within and is influenced by cultural systems and structures including (but not limited to) those of the family, the school, and the surrounding community.
EU 5: Collaboration and Partnership
Students will understand that effective teaching and learning is situated in local and globalized communities and incorporates assets of students, families, and broader communities into learning. Students will understand that transformative learning engages in collaborative, mutually beneficial, and sustainable relationships among school, communities, and multiple stakeholders to ensure the academic success and social & emotional learning of all students.
EU6: Principles and Practices of Social Justice
Students will develop their ability to apply principles and practices of a social justice lens in relation theories and practices of schools and communities by focusing on transformative teaching and learning, university-school-community collaborations, mitigating inequities and disrupting power structures and practices that have contributed to the marginalization of communities and people around the world through research and pedagogy.
Graduate & Professional Standards and Regulations
Students in graduate and professional programs can find their Academic Policies in Graduate and Professional Academic Standards and Regulations under their school. Any additional University Policies supercede school policies.
Curriculum
Completion of the EdD in 3Cs requires
- 60 semester hours of which 42 must be completed at Loyola University,
- a comprehensive assessment after the successful completion of the coursework, and
- a dissertation and oral defense.
Course List
| Code |
Title |
Hours |
| CIEP 440 | Critical Investigations in the Field of Curriculum | 3 |
| CIEP 469 | Issues that Shape Teaching and Learning in Urban Schools and Communities | 3 |
| CIEP 518 | Theories and Practices of Partnerships | 3 |
| CIEP 524 | Privilege, Power, and Possibilities: Teaching for Social Justice in Schools and Communities | 3 |
| CIEP 488 | Participatory Action Research (PAR) in Schools and Communities | 3 |
| RMTD 420 | Educational Research I: Building a Body of Evidence With Qualitative Methods 1 | 3 |
| RMTD 421 | Educational Research II: Building a Body of Evidence With Quantitative Methods 2 | 3 |
| CIEP 521 | Curr Theory & Research with Schools & Communities: Positionalities, Perspectives, & Transformations | 3 |
| CIEP 522 | Curriculum Policy Across Schools and Communities | 3 |
| CIEP 523 | Curriculum Improvement and School-Community Change | 3 |
| Models of Instruction | |
| Culturally Sustainable Curriculum Development & Implementation | |
| Technology Enhanced Instruction & Online Teaching | |
| Principles of Instructional Design | |
| Instructional Leadership for Multicultural Schools | |
| Social Justice for Multilingual Learners | |
| Seminar: Curriculum Issues | |
| Foundations Using Data for Continuous Improvement | |
| Educational Evaluation | |
| Needs Assessment | |
| |
| Total Hours | 60 |
Suggested Sequence of Courses
Upon completion of below coursework, students will enroll in Doctoral Study and Dissertation Supervision until defense of the dissertation.
The below sequence of courses is meant to be used as a suggested path for completing coursework. An individual student’s completion of requirements depends on course offerings in a given term as well as the start term for a major or graduate study. Students should consult their advisor for assistance with course selection.
Plan of Study Grid
| Year One |
|---|
| Fall |
|---|
| CIEP 440 |
Critical Investigations in the Field of Curriculum |
3 |
| CIEP 524 |
Privilege, Power, and Possibilities: Teaching for Social Justice in Schools and Communities |
3 |
| | Hours | 6 |
| Spring |
|---|
| CIEP 469 |
Issues that Shape Teaching and Learning in Urban Schools and Communities |
3 |
| CIEP 518 |
Theories and Practices of Partnerships |
3 |
| | Hours | 6 |
| Summer |
|---|
| CIEP 488 |
Participatory Action Research (PAR) in Schools and Communities |
3 |
|
3 |
| | Hours | 6 |
| Year Two |
|---|
| Fall |
|---|
| CIEP 521 |
Curr Theory & Research with Schools & Communities: Positionalities, Perspectives, & Transformations |
3 |
| RMTD 420 |
Educational Research I: Building a Body of Evidence With Qualitative Methods |
3 |
|
3 |
| | Hours | 9 |
| Spring |
|---|
| CIEP 522 |
Curriculum Policy Across Schools and Communities |
3 |
| RMTD 421 |
Educational Research II: Building a Body of Evidence With Quantitative Methods |
3 |
|
3 |
| | Hours | 9 |
| Summer |
|---|
| CIEP 523 |
Curriculum Improvement and School-Community Change |
3 |
|
3 |
| | Hours | 6 |
| Year Three |
|---|
| Fall |
|---|
|
3 |
|
3 |
| | Hours | 6 |
| Spring |
|---|
|
3 |
|
3 |
| | Hours | 6 |
| Summer |
|---|
|
3 |
|
3 |
| | Hours | 6 |
| | Total Hours | 60 |
Length of the Program
Typically, full-time students can complete the coursework between two and three academic years depending on summer enrollment. The dissertation takes another 1.5 to 2 years. Assuming normal progress, it is reasonable to expect part-time students who have completed all prerequisites and enroll in six semester hours during each Fall, Spring, and Summer semester could complete coursework in approximately three academic years and dissertation in approximately 2 years. Time for degree completion, including the dissertation, is four to six years.
Course Transfer
With the advisor’s approval, students may apply credits from a master's degree or prior coursework. The three scenarios include:
- If a student completes a Master's degree in a designated Loyola program they may be able to transfer up to 30 credit hours to the doctoral program.
- If a student completes a Master’s degree at an accredited institution, not Loyola they may be able to transfer up to 18 credit hours to the doctoral program.
- If a student has a Bachelor’s plus 5+ years of professional experience, they should complete a Master’s as part of their coursework towards earning a doctorate in the program.
Continuous Enrollments
Doctoral students in 3Cs (Curriculum, Culture, and Communities) are required to maintain the status of continuous enrollment during their program of studies. This means that during each semester of each academic year (excluding Summer Sessions), each student must enroll in at least one course. A formal leave of absence may be granted upon request and the approval of the School of Education’s Assistant Dean of Student Academic Affairs.
Comprehensive Assessment
Candidates must write a scholarly literature review that is assessed by their dissertation committee prior to developing their proposal.
Candidacy
The requirements for doctoral candidacy are
- successful completion of all specifically required coursework;
- successful completion of all comprehensive assessment,
- approval of the dissertation proposal by the approved dissertation committee and Institutional Review Board (IRB).
Graduate & Professional Standards and Regulations
Students in graduate and professional programs can find their Academic Policies in Graduate and Professional Academic Standards and Regulations under their school. Any additional University Policies supercede school policies.
