Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

Dr. David Tan, Interim Chair

There are three degree-granting areas in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (ELPS).  Each of the three areas offers a Master's and Ph.D. degree within that program area. In addition, EACS offers the Ed.D. degree for those who see their futures in PK-12 building or district-level leadership. Each area has its own admissions process, course offerings, and faculty. Information about each program area can be obtained on the website or by contacting the Program Area Coordinators.

Adult and Higher Education (EDAH) 
Dr. Jerome Weber, Program Area Coordinator

The EDAH Program offers the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) and Master's (M.Ed.) degrees which are specifically designed to prepare graduates to address significant post-secondary issues facility our globe, nation, society, and community. The program focuses on adult learning, continuing higher and professional education, training and development, distributive learning, student affairs administration, and institutional research. Our graduates assume teaching, administrative, research and leadership positions in a variety of non-profit and for-profit organizational settings, including colleges and universities, governmental agencies, social service and learning centers, and business corporations. The core competencies for all students in the EDAH program include critical issues, adult learning, research, and administration.

Educational Administration, Curriculum, and Supervision (EACS)
Dr. Patrick Forsyth, Program Area Coordinator

The EACS Program offers a master's (M.Ed.), certification (principal and superintendent) and doctoral programs (Ed.D. and Ph.D.) to provide graduate level preparation for leadership positions in elementary and secondary school systems, district-level positions, administrative roles in government, researcher roles in policy and advocacy centers, and scholarly positions in colleges and universities. The EACS faculty is comprised of scholars and practitioners who have experience and understand issues facing schools and districts, and are committed to providing an enriched curriculum to equip educational leaders with the habits of mind, habits of hand, and habits of heart that are needed to develop stewards of the discipline (as termed by the Carnegie Foundation). The diverse selection of elective courses provides for shaping the individual's degree program according to their professional interests at both the doctoral and master's levels. The M.Ed. degree program offers a plan of study to focus on the principal certification eligibility or other possible areas of specialization (curriculum and supervision, law and policy, and technology leadership) without certification eligibility. Both the Ph.D. and Ed.D. degrees require a high level of commitment to research and an understanding of leadership and public policy functions. Program offerings are located on both the Norman and Tulsa (cohort) campuses.

Educational Studies (EDS)
Dr. Susan Laird, Doctoral Program Coordinator, Dr. Courtney Vaughn, Master's Program Coordinator

The EDS Program offers liberally educated practitioners of education an interdisciplinary option for individualized pursuit of the M.Ed. and Ph.D. within a community of collaborative learning, original inquiry, and mutual support. Currently active in Human Relations, Women's & Gender Studies, Religious Studies, and the College of Education's TE-PLUS program, EDS faculty provide close mentorship to EDS graduate students and are themselves well-published scholars with extensive professional backgrounds as educators in day-care centers, schools, colleges, universities, and social settlements. Graduate study in EDS is a scholarly apprenticeship, preparatory for positions of intellectual leadership as professional educators and educators-of-educators, with an explicit research, teaching, and service mission:  To foster social justice, non-violence, and democratic life through interpretive, critical, and normative inquiry in historical, philosophical, legal, social, and cultural studies of education--education for children and for adults, by various means, formal and informal, in diverse settings, local and global.

Through the empirical, interpretive, normative, and critical study of theory, policy, and leadership grounded in foundational disciplines, the mission of the department is to provide initial and continuing development of education professionals in various settings.

Program Address

Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies
Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education
The University of Oklahoma
820 Van Vleet Oval, Room 227 Collings Hall
Norman, OK 73019
(405) 325-4202 (Office) | (405) 325-2403 (Fax)

This page last updated: Aug 20, 2009