Early Childhood Education and Care (PhD)

Department of Curriculum and Instruction | College of Education and Human Development

Program Requirements

Complete 63 credits from 19 courses including five core courses, six research methods courses, one teaching seminar, two doctoral seminars, two research team seminar, and three concentration courses; as well as a nine credit dissertation.

Doctoral candidacy: Completion of a comprehensive examination.
Dissertation: Compose and defend a dissertation based on original research.

Statute of limitations: Nine years.

Course Requirements

Core Courses (15 Credits)

ECHD 701 - Early Education and Care Policy and Practice 3 Credit(s)
ECHD 702 - Advanced Child Development and Early Learning 3 Credit(s)
ECHD 704 - Leadership and Change in Early Education and Care 3 Credit(s)
ECHD 705 - The Science of Early Learning 3 Credit(s)
ECHD 706 - Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Early Childhood Education and Care. 3 Credit(s)

Research Methods Courses (18 Credits)

Complete one introductory course, one quantitative course, one qualitative course, and three advanced qualitative research electives.

Introductory Course:
ECHD 703 - Translating Early Education Research into Practice 3 Credit(s)
Qualitative Courses (choose one):
PPOL-G 609L - Qualitative Methods and Field Research 3 Credit(s)
EDLDRS 740 - Research Methods in Educational Leadership I 3 Credit(s)
HIGHED 752 - Research Methods in Higher Education: Qualitative Analysis 3 Credit(s)
Quantitative Courses (choose one):
EDLDRS 741 - Research Methods in Educational Leadership II 3 Credit(s)
CSP 708 - Intermediate Statistics in CSP 3 Credit(s)
HIGHED 751 - Research Methods in Higher Education: Quantitative Analysis 3 Credit(s)
PPOL-G 605L - Statistical Methods in the Analysis of Social Problems II 3 Credit(s)
CSP 770 - Advanced Statistics in Counseling and School Psychology 3 Credit(s)
APLING 704 - Advanced Discourse Analysis 3 Credit(s)
APLING 705 - Advanced Ethnography 3 Credit(s)
SOCIOL 660 - Fundamentals of Survey Methodology 3 Credit(s)

Teaching Seminar (3 Credits)

ECHD 707 - Teaching Early Childhood Education and Care in Higher Education 3 Credit(s)

Doctoral Seminars (6 Credits)

ECHD 709 - ECEC Doctoral Seminar I 3 Credit(s)
ECHD 710 - ECEC Doctoral Seminar II 3 Credit(s)

Research Team Seminars (3 Credits)

Complete two semesters.

ECHD 708 - Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Research Team Seminar 1.5 Credit(s)

Concentration Courses (9 Credits)

Take three courses from one of the concentrations below.

Learning and Teaching in the First Five Years Concentration

Leadership, Policy and Finance Concentration

Urban, Multilingual and Global Contexts Concentration

Individual Concentration