The Doctor of Philosophy Degree program is planned by the student with the advisor to develop the student's ability to conduct research in a specialized field of education. The College of Education offers the Doctor of Philosophy degree on-campus only.
Upon admission to a Doctor of Philosophy program, each student is assigned an academic advisor in the student's area of specialization. The student and advisor plan a program of study to meet the student’s individual goals and general degree requirements. Departments may require that a copy of the program plan be kept on file.
Graduate students and advisors should be guided by the Graduate College policy on doctoral degree time limits. If a time extension is desired, it may be requested by completing a Graduate Student Petition, including an Academic Progress Plan. These petitions are considered and acted upon by the student’s advisor, the department, and the Graduate College. Each individual who has authority to act on the petition may either approve or deny the petition.
All students admitted to a Doctor of Philosophy degree program must fulfill Graduate College requirements for the doctoral degree, departmental requirements, and the following College of Education minimum requirements on the Urbana campus or through Urbana off-campus or online courses:
Completion of at least 64 hours beyond the master's degree including:
The College of Education follows the Graduate College's rules on residence credit.
For students entering a doctoral program already holding a master's degree (Stage II), transfer of credit from outside institutions into this degree is not allowed. This is in accordance with the Graduate College's policy on transfer credit.
The purpose of the Ph.D. Research Area Requirement is to ensure that all Ph.D. students in the College of Education have sufficient coursework to attain proficiency in at least one research methodology and are able to conduct independent dissertation research.
The four areas of research—Interpretive, Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods—were chosen to represent the domain of methodologies prevalent in educational research and pursued by our graduate students and faculty. It is intended that the choice of a focus area will be consistent with a student’s dissertation research. All areas require a combination of introductory and advanced methods coursework. All students choose coursework in consultation with their academic advisor. Students must maintain a B average for all methodology courses.
All students will take a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 20 credit hours in research methods courses towards the research area requirement.
Interpretive methods of research and analysis play a role in educational research in different senses. They are used in many disciplines and fields as primary means to creating a narrative, making meaning, or making cultural or policy critiques. For example, in humanistic studies of education, such as philosophy of education and history of education, the interpretation of texts, events, human actions, narratives, and concepts forms the basis of research. In these or other cases, the analysis of language can play a central role. In legal analysis in education, for example, the use of interpretive methods involves the analysis of case law, legislation, and administrative policy. In cultural studies or discourse analysis in education, the interpretation of culture, practices and artifacts, or language itself plays a central role in studying social patterns of inclusion, exclusion, and the dynamics of power. In some varieties of curriculum theory, the interpretation of textbooks and other materials plays a key role in explaining how society reflects judgments about knowledge and value in their curricular choices. In each of these contexts (philosophy, history, legal analysis, cultural studies and discourse analysis, or the studies of textbooks or other texts) the meaning and skills of "interpretation" very - for example, the interpretation of a school textbook or classroom film is of a very different sort than the interpretation of a human action, a historical event, or a legal text, etc. In some cases the skills of interpretation are inseparable from disciplinary knowledge and expertise.
Therefore, no single set of courses will suit all of these discrete sets of skills. For this reason, the list of requirements is organized around areas of emphasis. It is for the student and advisor to identify suitable courses; many (for example, legal analysis) will entail course work outside the College of Education.
The Interpretive Research requirement:
All students will take the foundational methods course, Methods of Educational Inquiry (CI/EPOL/EPSY/SPED 550). It is recommended that students take this introductory foundations course in their first year of the doctoral program.
At least three additional courses should be selected from offerings in the College of Education or from other Colleges, subject to approval by the student's advisor. Advisors have discretion if the best training for each student should reflect deep training in a single area or broad training across several areas of interpretive methodology.
Students must provide a rationale in writing for how chosen coursework meets the research requirement. This rationale will be reviewed by the student's advisor and the departmental Director of Graduate Studies.
Selected courses should address theory and applications in interpretive methods as practiced in the humanistic disciplines (e.g., philosophy of education and history of education), curriculum theory, cultural or literary studies, or policy and legal analysis. So for example:
The field of qualitative research in education (also spoken of as ethnography, qualitative field study, case study, naturalistic research, and interpretive research) is extremely rich and diverse and encompasses several different versions of its aim and methods as influenced by the Chicago School of Sociology, the Verstehen tradition in sociology (including symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology, ethnomusicology, the ethnography of communication, and other types of micro-ethnography), the ethnographic tradition in cultural anthropology and fieldwork sociology, and notions of educational connoisseurship and criticism. In addition, ideas drawn from philosophical hermeneutics, social constructionism, postmodern theory, feminist theory, and critical theory of society shape conceptions of qualitative research as a way of studying the social world.
Some forms of qualitative research involve empirical investigation of the social world by means of field study or fieldwork employing the approach of participant observation. Qualitative research as field study emphasizes observation in situ-that is, learning by means of a (relatively) sustained presence in a situation or setting and observing the goings-on there. Moreover, participant observation is not merely a methodology but an epistemology: the inquirer-as-fieldworker assumes that immersion in, intimate familiarity with, and/or empathetic participation in the human action studied is necessary for grasping, understanding, and eventually portraying the meaning of social action.
Not all qualitative studies, however, are fieldwork in this traditional sense. In fact, some contemporary forms of qualitative research are actually quite critical of the traditional approach to fieldwork as participant observation. Some qualitative studies employ life history methodologies, examine the constitution and meaning of cultural artifacts, or focus on the constitution and operation of various discourse practices.
Qualitative research offers an array of meaningful methodological frameworks for exploring a range of educational matters: e.g., examining the intersection of language, culture, and schooling; the relationship between schools and their communities; the formation and enactment of school and curricular reform and other policy initiatives, and so on. Therefore, students aiming to develop a special focus in qualitative research must seek out opportunities to explore the use of qualitative research in investigating substantive issues in their particular field of interest (e.g., curriculum design, educational policy, language education, higher education, adolescent development).
The Qualitative Research focus area is intended to help students develop:
All students will take the foundational methods course, Methods of Educational Inquiry (CI/EPOL/EPSY/SPED 550). It is recommended that students take this introductory foundations course in their first year of the doctoral program.
The following are recommended courses offered in the College of Education. Other courses may be chosen but are subject to approval by the student's advisor.
It is recommended that a student take a course from the following list and a basic quantitative course.
Expertise in the design, analysis and interpretation of research employing quantitative techniques underlies a substantial portion of educational research. The purpose of this research methodology is to provide a programmatic approach to developing scholarly expertise in quantitative methodologies.
The area of quantitative methodology has the following purposes:
The Quantitative Research focus area enables the student to further specialize in one of three sub areas of quantitative methodology:
All students will take the foundational methods course, Methods of Educational Inquiry (CI/EPOL/EPSY/SPED 550). It is recommended that students take this introductory foundations course in their first year of the doctoral program.
If a course is not offered when the student needs it, courses across departments can be taken (e.g. PSYC 506 followed by EPSY 581) and are subject to approval by the student's advisor.
The student must take 8 basic research hours. The student must demonstrate a basic level of statistical knowledge by satisfactorily completing either:
EPSY 580 Statistical Inference in Education AND
EPSY 581 Applied Regression Analysis
OR
PSYC 506 Statistical Methods I AND PSYC 507 Statistical Methods II
OR
STAT 400 Statistics and Probability AND STAT 425 Applied Regression and Design
The student must demonstrate expertise in a sub area by satisfactorily completing a minimum of 8 hours from one of the following specializations:
Mixed methods research in education provides an in-depth, flexible approach to examining a world where interdisciplinary research is exceedingly more commonplace. It enables researchers to combine qualitative and quantitative approaches to design rigorous research for a nuanced understanding of complex phenomena (Creswell & Clark, 2011). Mixed methods research engages multiple paradigms, methodological traditions, modes of data collection, and analysis techniques (Greene, 2007) and is particularly appropriate in areas of social science research that translates to real-world application and/or policy, such as education, politics, technology, race, and more.
Mixed methods researchers can ask and answer research questions that a single method research study may not be able address. Researchers in this area collect and analyze both qualitative and quantitative data rigorously and in a contextually appropriate manner. Additionally, researchers can adopt mixed methods to combine research across fields, theories and worldviews. Mixed methods can be applied in a single research study or in multiple phases of a research.
Students in this specialization will:
The Mixed Methods focus area requires 20 hours of course work (4 hours in Foundations and 16 hours of additional coursework, as distributed below).
All students will take the foundational methods course, Methods of Educational Inquiry (CI/EPOL/EPSY/SPED 550). It is strongly recommended that students take this course in their first year of the doctoral program.
The following are recommended courses offered in the College of Education. Other courses may be chosen but are subject to approval by the student's advisor.
Students will also take the following three courses. It is strongly recommended that students take EPSY 578 and EPSY 580 before EPSY 575.
Additionally, students will take one course from the following list:
In collaboration with their advisor, the student must develop and annually maintain a Research Area Plan. Discussions should center around why the student has chosen the focus area and the ways in which it is expected to contribute to the student’s doctoral research and future career plans.
Since courses may change from the original plan due to course offerings, the student will provide an updated Research Area plan during each annual Evaluation of Academic Progress. The advisor will approve the plan as part of their evaluation process.
Research area coursework must be satisfactorily completed before the student can submit a request for the preliminary examination. The Graduate Student Services Office will confirm the milestone has been completed upon receipt of the committee request form.
If there is a problem related to the research requirement process, the student can choose to appeal to the Director of Graduate Studies at the department level. More information on the grievance process can be found in the Grievance Policy and Procedures section of the handbook.
All Ph.D. students shall conduct and present an educational research study by the end of their third full year in their graduate programs. This research should be undertaken with the expectation that it will contribute to knowledge in the area of the student’s Ph.D. program. In addition, an important objective of the Early Research Project is to familiarize faculty members with new Ph.D. students and their research interests and to examine ways in which these interests might be pursued in the doctoral program.
By the end of the first full year of doctoral study, or soon thereafter, all Ph.D. students should consult with their advisors about the formation of an Early Research Project (ERP) committee consisting of the advisor and two other faculty members. ERP committee members should be members of faculty who have been admitted to the Graduate College. With the approval of the head or chair of a department, up to one member of the committee may be approved from outside the university. Committee members are expected to provide counsel as the early research project develops. Whenever extended work with a faculty member is anticipated, the student should arrange for independent study credit.
The student shall formally present to their committee a written and oral report on the early research project. For the work to satisfy the ERP requirement for the Ph.D., all three members of the committee must approve and sign the ERP form. The completed Early Research Project form must be filed with the Graduate Student Services Office.
A student who has completed a master’s thesis as part of earlier graduate work may, upon the advice of their advisor, present that research as the ERP. After hearing the presentation, the ERP Committee may accept the written and oral report as satisfying the early research requirement, or the committee may recommend that the work be revised or that another line of inquiry be pursued for the early research requirement.
A student who enters a master’s degree program with the intent of subsequently pursuing the Ph.D. is encouraged to discuss with their advisor the possibility of forming the ERP Committee prior to conducting the master’s thesis research (Graduate Faculty Action, December 9, 1988). For all early research involving the use of human subjects, approval for use of human subjects or confirmation that human subjects review is not required must be obtained from the Institutional Review Board. A letter showing approval from the Campus Institutional Review Board (IRB) must be provided to the department contact in the Graduate Student Services Office prior to the scheduling of the ERP. Students should begin the approval process eight weeks prior to the ERP.
The Qualifying Examinations are written comprehensive examinations administered to doctoral students near the completion of their coursework and after completion of the Early Research Project. The Early Research Project must be completed and the results submitted to the Graduate Student Services Office by the academic advisor prior to a student beginning the Qualifying Examinations.
Purposes of the qualifying examinations in the College of Education include:
Each Ph.D. student will take a General Field Examination covering the field of study embraced by the home department or division. General Field Exam questions will be developed as per each department's internal procedures. General Field Exams will be evaluated by a faculty committee that is determined as per each department's internal procedures.
All Ph.D. students will take a Special Field Examination covering an area of specialization proposed by the student with the concurrence of the advisor. The Special Field should be a scholarly specialization more broadly conceived than the anticipated dissertation topic.
The advisor will be responsible for developing questions for the Special Field Exam, drawing upon the expertise of other faculty when needed. The advisor, in consultation with the student, will also determine the format of the examination and select at least two additional faculty readers with expertise in the field being examined.
Formats should be decided well in advance of exam dates. In particular, students should discuss the format of the Special Field Exam with their advisors to arrive at a recommendation that best meets student needs as well as the expectations of the advisor and Department. The three formats are:
To pass the examination, the student must receive excellent or satisfactory ratings from all faculty readers on each of the General Field and Special Field exams. There are three possible ratings for all sections of the qualifying exams.
If the examination is rated "unsatisfactory" by any member(s) of the committee, the member(s) making that evaluation shall communicate the major deficiencies to the student and make a collective decision as to the format and scope of the revised or new examination, if applicable. All faculty readers who rated the first exam "unsatisfactory" will evaluate the revised exam. A satisfactory or excellent rating must be awarded by all readers for the student to pass the revised examination, and should one or more readers judge the second exam unsatisfactory, the readers shall meet to review the student's performance. If extenuating circumstances exist that warrant a third attempt, the advisor may request approval from the department head/chair or designee. Students shall normally be permitted two attempts to pass each of the qualifying examinations.
Students should receive results within 3 weeks from the date of the exam. The department will ensure timeliness of review and communicate results to students and to the advisor.
Faculty have two weeks upon receipt of the qualifying exam to submit their results to the Graduate Student Services Office (GSSO). Shortly thereafter, GSSO will send the results to the student, copying the Director of Graduate Study and advisor.
After all readers for the exams have returned their excellent or satisfactory evaluations, a letter is sent to the student from their department indicating the readers’ decisions. A copy of the letter and evaluations are placed in the student's academic file.
The first person a student should consult concerning the qualifying exams is their advisor. If irreconcilable differences arise between the student and advisor concerning scheduling, format, content, or rating procedures, the student should consult the department head/chair or designee. If the problem cannot be resolved, consult the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs. Normal grievance procedures can be used (see Grievance Policy and Procedures section of this handbook.) If a student wishes to postpone a scheduled examination, the request should be made through the advisor to the department office.
For all dissertations, approval for use of human subjects or confirmation that human subjects review is not required must be obtained from the Institutional Review Board prior to doing research on the dissertation topic. A letter showing approval from the Campus Institutional Review Board (IRB) must be provided to the department contact in the Graduate Student Services Office prior to the scheduling of the preliminary examination. Students should begin the approval process eight weeks prior to the examination.
The preliminary oral examination (prelim) follows successful completion of all required coursework, the early research requirement, the qualifying examinations, the research methods requirement, and human subjects approval. In addition, all incomplete grades must be changed to letter grades prior to the oral examination.
The purpose of a prelim is for a student to present the rationale and format for the dissertation. During the examination, an agreement is reached between the student and the committee concerning the proposed dissertation. Thus, the examination is held prior to the collection of data or other major work on the dissertation. The student must be registered in order to take the prelim. The student should consult the department for additional requirements.
Students should begin appointing the committee and scheduling the examination at least four weeks prior to the expected date.
The committee must meet the preliminary examination committee requirements of the Graduate College including:
In addition to these requirements, College of Education requirements must be met:
For committee members outside of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a letter of justification and curriculum vitae must be submitted by the chair to the Graduate Student Services Office who will then submit it to the College of Education Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and the Graduate College for approvals. In appointing the committee, the student submits committee member information to the Graduate Student Services Office by completing the Request for Appointment of Committee Form. This form must be submitted at least four weeks before the examination. The Graduate Student Services Office will retrieve the appropriate approvals.
The student must present the dissertation proposal to the prelim examination committee for reading two weeks before the examination; in some cases, it may be more reasonable to allow three weeks. Failure to do so may result in delaying or canceling the prelim.
The chair, student, and at least one additional voting member of the committee must be physically present for the entire duration of all oral components of the examination. If the committee has more than one chair, all chairs must be physically present; in these cases, no additional voting member is required to be physically present. All voting members of the committee must be present in person or participate via teleconference or other electronic communication media during the examination, deliberation and results determination.
The chair obtains the Preliminary Exam Result (PER) form from the Graduate Student Services Office before the examination and returns the form immediately after the examination. All voting members must sign the PER.
Decisions of the prelim committee must be unanimous. The committee may make one of the following decisions:
The result of the examination is communicated to the student and the Graduate Student Services Office as soon as possible at the conclusion of the examination.
Number of Attempts: After a fail result, a student will only be allowed to take the preliminary examination one additional time while working toward the completion of any one program of study.
The preliminary examination must be retaken if the final examination is not passed within five years of the original examination.
The Ph.D. dissertation is intended to demonstrate the student’s capacity to conduct independent research. The student’s research should make an original contribution to knowledge (Graduate Faculty Action, February 15, 1973). The dissertation usually requires a year or more of study. Registration in dissertation research hours for on-campus or in-absentia students, after the completion of the required 64 hours beyond the master’s degree, is required. This registration typically comes after the coursework is completed and before the time limits are reached.
The dissertation must be prepared using one of the following commonly accepted editorial styles:
NOTE: LaTex is not an acceptable editorial style. However, this typesetting system can be used in conjunction with one of the above editorial styles.
The student will consult with the chair and dissertation committee members to choose the style to be used. In exceptional circumstances, style manuals not listed above may be used with prior approval of the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs. In addition, the Thesis & Dissertation policies and procedures issued by the Graduate College must be followed. In the case of explicit differences between the Graduate College instructions and the style manual selected, the Graduate College instructions take precedence. For example, students choosing the APA style manual should follow the Graduate College instructions rather than those included in the APA manual for insertion of tables and figures. Every dissertation in final manuscript form must be reviewed and approved by the dissertation director of research and/or chairperson of the dissertation committee to ensure that the dissertation meets the Graduate College and departmental requirements for deposit.
Abstracts for dissertations in the College of Education must include a synopsis of the following information to fully describe the completed study:
Final examinations are oral and open to the public. The final examination committee chair is responsible for convening the committee, conducting the examination, and submitting the Final Exam Result form to the Graduate Student Services Office.
Students (also known as "candidates" at this stage) should begin appointing the committee and scheduling the final examination (final) at least four weeks prior to the expected date.
The committee must meet the final examination committee requirements of the Graduate College including:
In addition to these requirements, College of Education requirements must be met:
For committee members outside of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a letter of justification and curriculum vitae must be submitted by the chair to the Graduate Student Services Office who will then submit it to the College of Education Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and the Graduate College for approvals. In appointing the committee, the student submits committee member information to the Graduate Student Services Office by completing the Request for Appointment of Committee Form. This form must be submitted at least four weeks before the examination. The Graduate Student Services Office will retrieve the appropriate approvals.
The final is a public event to be conducted in a room that will accommodate the candidate, the committee, and any attendees. The public may not ask questions or give input during the examination.
The candidate must present the dissertation to the final examination committee for reading two weeks before the examination; in some cases, it may be more reasonable to allow three weeks.
The chair, candidate, and at least one additional voting member of the committee must be physically present for the entire duration of the examination. If the committee has more than one chair, all chairs must be physically present; in these cases, no additional voting member is required to be physically present. All voting members of the committee must be present in person or participate via teleconference or other electronic communication media during the examination, deliberation and results determination.
The chair obtains the Final Exam Result (FER) form and the Thesis/Dissertation Approval (TDA) form from the Graduate Student Services Office prior to the examination and returns the forms immediately after the examination. All appointed committee members' signatures are required on the forms; signatories must sign for themselves. Committee members have the right to review the final copy of the dissertation before signing. The committee should meet in private before beginning the examination. At the conclusion of the examination, the committee will meet in private to discuss the results and then inform the candidate of the decision.
Results: Unanimous decisions are not required. Decisions of the committee for the final are recorded on the FER form. The voting members of the committee must make one of two decisions:
Number of Attempts: After a fail result a candidate will only be allowed to take the final examination one additional time while working toward the completion of any one program of study.
After the passing the final, provide the dissertation in final form to the committee chair and visit the Graduate College Thesis & Dissertation web pages for further deposit instructions.
All students who have successfully defended their dissertation must obtain departmental dissertation format approval prior to final deposit with the Graduate College Thesis Office. Departmental format approval consists of three parts:
After the departmental format review, dissertations are deposited in the Graduate College using the ETD process.