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The goal of this scholarly doctoral program is to provide expertise and practical application for those serving in Christian schools. The applicant may work on a doctoral program in one of the following areas: educational administration, elementary education, or curriculum and instruction with specialization in English, history, or science education.
Doctoral study consists of the mastery of a field of knowledge and the successful pursuit of research. Doctoral students act to some degree on their own responsibility. Doctoral programs are more flexible and varied than those leading to other graduate degrees. The general requirement is that the program should be unified in relation to a clear objective and that it be approved by the Doctoral Committee of the Pensacola Christian College Graduate School. The course requirements for doctoral degrees vary from field to field and from student to student. A minimum of 60 credit hours beyond master’s degree or 90 credit hours beyond bachelor’s degree (including all courses required for this program and doctoral research) is required for the doctoral degree. A student’s course of study will be designed to meet his particular needs, taking into account his past academic preparation, experience, and local school ministry. Each student’s doctoral program will build upon previous education.
Each education doctoral student must complete a minimum of 48 credit hours of course work. The following residence options are available:
Distance Learning: Up to one third of course requirements may be completed through PCC’s distance-learning program with the remainder completed on campus.
See specific courses that are offered summer 2008.
During each summer in residence, the applicant may enroll for up to five 3-credit courses. During the second summer, the student may take ED 665 Research Methodology, where the doctoral student is introduced to the various types of dissertations, preliminary research necessary to prepare an adequate proposal, and proposal-writing process. The course project involves preparing a proposal for a dissertation. However, it is neither required nor guaranteed that this proposal will be developed into the student’s actual dissertation.
Within one year after completing all course work, comprehensive examinations must be taken. At the completion of all required course work, the doctoral student must be registered for Research Study continuously (6 credits per year) until the written and oral comprehensive examinations have been successfully completed and the dissertation successfully defended and presented ready for binding. Defense of the dissertation will be scheduled after the dissertation has been acknowledged by the Doctoral Committee as worthy of the formal defense procedures.
All work including the final oral examination of the defense of the dissertation must be completed within 7 consecutive years. The 7 years begins with the first course taken in the doctoral program. For example, if the first course listed was taken summer 2008, the student must complete all requirements by August 2015.
The Doctor of Education degree will be conferred only upon those of strong character, displaying qualities of leadership and evidencing a high degree of scholarship in their chosen fields.
Every candidate for a doctoral degree is required to prepare and present a dissertation that shows complete independent investigation of a subject area and is acceptable in form and content to the student’s Dissertation Committee and the Doctoral Committee. It is necessary that the work be of publishable quality. The dissertation must exhibit originality and thoroughness of research and must be an exhaustive treatment of the subject chosen. The form of the dissertation must be approved by the college dissertation reviewer. In addition, the graduate student must present his research in an acceptable and correct grammatical style. Mere technical form is not enough; the material should reflect the high quality of research and knowledge expected of a doctor of education.
The student must register for Research Study when he submits his dissertation proposal for approval or upon completion of his final course. Enrollment in Research Study must continue each year without a break until the dissertaion is completed, whether or not the student resides in Pensacola. If the final copy is not acceptable and not presented for binding within 30 days after the defense, a $150 Dissertation Final Copy Extension Fee will be charged for each additional 45 days.
All dissertations and other projects prepared as part of the requirements for a graduate degree automatically become the property of Pensacola Christian College and may not be published or reproduced without the written consent of the College.
In addition to the General Admission Requirements, applicants for the Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction must have earned at least 18 credits of English, history, or science on the undergraduate or graduate level according to the desired program. The science credits must include a general chemistry course and a physics course.
See Candidacy.