Transformative Learning in the Global Community

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an Hour” 

(William Blake's Auguries of Innocence, in Buber, 1970, p. 28, see footnote 1)

What is Transformative Learning?

Webster University's transformative learning has philosophical roots stemming from the works of Buber, Dewey, Freire, Foucault, Bourdieu, Bakhtin, just to name a few. In Buber's (1970) I and Thou, "The basic word I-You establishes the world of relation" (p. 59). Buber's premise is predicated upon a dialogic and dialectic relationship between a human being and the world. Webster University's transformative learning emphasizes on the transformational experience within a human being and across human beings. When a person goes through transformation, an enlightened view of the world and a renewed mindset is resulted. Such renewed mindset is not stagnant but will continue to evolve through time and change in experience. Our doctoral degree has a legacy (see footnote 2) of educating future leaders in the global community for social justice and equity. Our graduates had developed dissertations with a social conscious perspective, aiming to make a difference in many people's lives. Through transformative learning, we hope to create a world class academic experience for educators who care to make a difference in the world. 

Who is This Program Intended for?

This program is intended for educator-scholars who aspire to become higher education faculty, leaders in schools, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and various educational settings. The program is designed to prepare a student to enter a teaching, leadership, or researcher role in the field of education. The program is designed to be 3-year, 40 credits; but the actual duration and credit hours depend on the progress made towards the dissertation writing and scheduling with dissertation committees. Students may enter this program with various master's degree that are related to education because the program is interdisciplinary per se.

The program runs every year. The next cohort will be Fall 2025. This flagship program is interdisciplinary and offered asynchronous online with a residency requirement that can be done via Zoom.

EDOC 7903 Residency for Online Program, is a two-day event: Day One (split into two half-days) focuses on orientation meetings, virtual campus tour, and rapport building among the faculty, staff, and students at the School of Education; Day Two (split into two half-days) focuses on the program milestones and dissertation requirements. The residency allows doctoral students to interact with faculty, staff, and peers at the School of Education. Doctoral students may participate via Zoom.

Course Schedule

First Year Coursework 

• EDOC 7120 Global Histories and Politics in Education (3)

This course is a comparative review of modern educational systems and learning experiences in different countries. Students discuss the ways in which educational systems have been influenced by industrialization and global capitalism. The rise of globalization, the information economy, and their effect on modern education theory as well as educational systems will be viewed as an important backdrop. Other recent attempts and current trends to influence and reshape schooling in the light of emergent educational philosophies will also be explored. 

• EDOC 7130 Transformative Lens in Educational Technologies (3)

This course examines a wide variety of issues related to the roles of information communication technologies (ICTs) in the transformation of learning environments, both physical and virtual. Using a transformative lens, the course reviews technological advancements in education settings, including social media and mobile technologies, and how the digitalization of information poses challenges to educators in the global context. It spans critical issues such as local and global tensions around ICT adoption in learning and design for new learning environments for the Information Age. Emphasis is on proposing a critical perspective so that students will engage in discourses and rehtoriecs on media literacy and social media literacy. The course requires students to engage in critical dialogues about the digital divide, intersectionality, and critical theories in communication technologies.

• EDOC 7140 Transformative Leadership in Education: Equity and Ethics (3)

This course focuses on transformative leadership, as well as the proposition and implementation of equitable and ethical values and decisions in education settings. Students examine ethical theories of understanding, evaluating, and developing standards and policies for ethical practice as educational leaders and visionaries. The equitable and ethical policies will be applicable to educational organizations, school districts, school buildings, government and non-government organizations. Students develop ethical and equitable policies and practices for social justice reasons.

• EDOC 7150 Social Justice and Transformative Learning in Global Education (3)

This seminar is a collection of classical and contemporary theories and philosophies that pertain to social justice, transformative learning, and global education. The academic focus of this course is to examine global education issues and theories that transform the lives of learners, as well as the educational system and learning communities. Candidates will study the intersection of theory and practice and its role in pedagogy and social change. 

• EDOC 7901 Doctoral Apprenticeship (3)

The doctoral apprenticeship is for doctoral students to accumulate research, teaching, leadership, and/or service experience in academic and social settings, while working one-on-one with a faculty mentor. The course is facilitated by an instructor, who will assist in pairing up the mentor and mentee. Students are encouraged to work with faculty mentors who will be their dissertation chairs or committee members. The apprenticeship consists of four options: Option One allows the doctoral student to assist a faculty mentor in research and publication; Option Two allows the doctoral student to assist a faculty mentor with conference proposal writing and presentation; Option Three allows the doctoral student to assist a faculty mentor with coursework development; Option Four allows the doctoral student to provide volunteer service at a local community or global location through teleconferencing. The objective is to make the apprenticeship a mutually beneficial experience for both the faculty mentor and the doctoral student. 

Second Year Coursework

• EDOC 7001 Doctoral Writing Seminar (3)

This course is for increasing the doctoral students’ academic writing competence and to prepare them for dissertation writing. The course will prepare students for reading and writing academic texts extensively. It offers hands-on experience for using research databases, creating in-text citations and references with relevant software, and educating students about citation format (APA, MLA, or Chicago Style). In this course, logic-of-inquiry or systematic consistency will be emphasized. Doctoral students will read examples of dissertations and understand the role of the literature review in context. Epistemological and ontological assumptions will be explored. In addition, doctoral students will learn about the skills and strategies for writing a literature review with relevant synthetical and analytical competence.

• EDOC 7002 Quantitative Research Methods (3)

This is a doctoral level quantitative research methods course. The course focuses on identifying the logic-of-inquiry, epistemological and ontological stances of research studies using quantitative methods. Students will learn about human subjects research, obtain the training required by the IRB, read extensively about quantitative studies published in academic research databases, What Works Clearing House, and ProQuest. Students are required to be competent in determining sample size, statistical power, generalizability, validity, and reliability upon completion of the course. Students will also have hands-on experience with JASP, understand the rationale and logic behind the statistical results, and know how to determine if a study yields significant results. 

• EDOC 7003 Qualitative Research Methods (3)

This is a doctoral level qualitative research methods course. The course focuses on identifying the logic-of-inquiry, epistemological and ontological stances of research studies using qualitative methods. Students will be able to understand a variety of qualitative research methods, focus on case studies, ethnography, narrative studies, and grounded theory research. Students will utilize a variety of data analytical approaches such as narrative analysis and discourse analysis, as well as understand the systematicity required for data collection (triangulation) and analysis. Students will develop competence in determining the credibility and trustworthiness of a study. Data collection methods will be explored and Nvivo data analysis will be applied.  

• EDOC 7004 Prospectus and Dissertation Writing (3)

This is a one-on-one course between a prospective dissertation chair and a doctoral student. The objective is to prepare the student to write the prospectus, which is the first three chapters of the dissertation, so that the student will be ready to defend the prospectus in the subsequent term. The student should identify the rest of the dissertation committee and obtain comments and feedback from all members regarding their prospectus before the end of the term. IRB approvals for dissertation projects which involve human subjects should be submitted by the end of the term. A final draft of the prospectus should be submitted as the final deliverable for the course. Doctoral students are recommended to work closely with the Writing Center for improving their academic writing quality. Students need to ensure that their writing will not require major editing towards the later stage of dissertation writing.

OR EDOC 7005 Research Design for Doctoral Digital Portfolio (DDP) (3)

This course is to prepare doctoral students in designing their Doctoral Digital Portfolio (DDP) with appropriate research methods. Students would have already made the decision to pursue a DDP in lieu of a dissertation. Doctoral students will explore the scholar-practitioner model in Ed.D., and the inquiry of practice that is relevant. Research design that is aligned with the inquiry of practice is examined. Upon taking the quantitative and qualitative research methods courses, doctoral students explored the foundational knowledge regarding the philosophical framing of research studies with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Doctoral students will further develop the required skills for using quantitative data analysis software such as SPSS, JASP, and R, as well as qualitative data analysis software such as NVivo, MAXQDA, or Dedoose. Students will submit an IRB draft (if applicable) and a DDP proposal by the end of the course. Pre-requisites: EDOC 7001, 7002, 7003.

• EDOC 7902 Comprehensive Exam and Prospectus Defense (3)

This course is designed for students to complete the comprehensive exam and prospectus defense. Students who pass the comprehensive exam will make advancement to doctoral candidacy. The comprehensive exam is credit-bearing (3 credits) and it will happen in the Summer; the prospectus defense should happen after the student passes the comprehensive exam and it is non-credit bearing. This is a pass or fail course. Students who pass the comprehensive exam will earn the credits with a pass. Students who fail the comprehensive exam on the second attempt will fail the course. The course creates a streamline process for students to enter the dissertation writing phase in the subsequent term or semester. Students who cannot complete the prospectus defense due to scheduling difficulty with the dissertation committee can attempt the prospectus defense in the subsequent term or semester. 

• EDOC 7903 Residency for Online Program (0)

This is a two-day residency requirement for the online doctoral program. Doctoral students in the online program participate in the first day in Year One, and the second day in Year Two. Day One focuses on orientation meetings, campus tour, and rapport building among the faculty, staff, and students at the School of Education. Day Two focuses on the program milestones and dissertation requirements. The residency allows doctoral students to interact with faculty, staff, and peers at the School of Education. Doctoral students may participate on-ground or via Zoom. Online doctoral students must complete the residency requirement before graduation.

Third Year Dissertation Credits (10)

• EDOC 8000 Doctoral Dissertation Research and Writing (5) Fall Semester 

The student works to complete the doctoral dissertation research and write the dissertation, which demonstrates the student's ability to design and conduct research on education from a global perspective. Candidates may register for 1-5 credits at a time per individual need. Candidates are required to complete a minimum of ten dissertation research credits. Prerequisite: The student must have successfully completed all other doctoral course work, passed comprehensive exams and achieved status of doctoral candidate.

• EDOC 8000 Doctoral Dissertation Research and Writing (5) Spring Semester

The student works to complete the doctoral dissertation research and write the dissertation, which demonstrates the student's ability to design and conduct research on education from a global perspective. Candidates may register for 1-5 credits at a time per individual need. Candidates are required to complete a minimum of ten dissertation research credits. Prerequisite: The student must have successfully completed all other doctoral course work, passed comprehensive exams and achieved status of doctoral candidate.

^Students who do not complete dissertation writing with 10 hours of EDOC 8000 will take EDOC 8010 Doctoral Project Completion (1 hour) until completion. Please read our Graduate Catalog for further information: https://www.webster.edu/catalog/current/graduate-catalog/degrees/doctor-of-education.html#.YmA4kS9h2Rs 

OR Third year Doctoral Digital portfolio (10 credits) 

• EDOC 8001 Doctoral Digital Portfolio I (5) Fall Semester 

This course is part of a two-course sequence, EDOC 8001 and 8002, which offers scholar-practitioners guidance for completing the Doctoral Digital Portfolio (DDP). DDP is a culmination of knowledge on educational theories, research, and applications in the field. The semester-long course offers lectures, seminar discussions, and learning exchange forums. During the semester-long course, doctoral candidates begin their research, data collection (if applicable), and analysis of their DDP projects. Doctoral candidates may choose to complete an individual DDP or group DDP. All DDP topics and methods need to be approved by the instructor. This course is a credit (CR) or no credit (NC) course. Students must have passed the comprehensive exam before taking this course. Pre-requisite: EDOC 7005.

• EDOC 8002 Doctoral Digital Portfolio II (5) Spring Semester 

This course is the sequel of EDOC 8001, which offers scholar-practitioners guidance for completing the Doctoral Digital Portfolio (DDP). DDP is a culmination of knowledge on educational theories, research, and applications in the field. The semester-long course offers lectures, seminar discussions, and learning exchange forums. During the semester-long course, doctoral candidates continue on their research, data collection (if applicable), analysis of their DDP projects, and completion of the DDPs. Doctoral candidates may choose to complete an individual DDP or group DDP. All changes in DDP topics and/or methods need to be approved by the instructor. This course is a credit (CR) or no credit (NC) course. Pre-requisite: EDOC 8001.

(1) - Buber, M. (1970). I and thou. (W. Kaufmann, Trans.) New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. (Original work published in 1923) 

     - Note that McWhinney and Markos (2003) also cited William Blake's "the World in a Grain of Sand" and Bateson (1972) and underscored that "in such a learning mode, 

       one is able to concurrently engage with the details of the moment while retaining the view of the whole" (p. 19) Reference: McWhinney, W. & Markos, L. (2003). 

       Transformative education across the threshold. Journal of Transformative Education, 1(1), 16-37. 

(2) This information was gathered from Dr. Mary Bevel, the founder of this doctoral program.

(3) This website is created by the Ed.D. Director, Dr. Yin Lam Lee-Johnson, and it is intended for recruiting new students and disseminating information with current students. It 

      is not an official website of Webster University.