EdD in Educational and Professional Practice: Social Emotional Learning
Location: AU Online
Credits for Degree: 60 semester credits
Standard Mode of Instruction: Low-residency
Standard time to completion: 36 months
Program Overview
The Ed.D. program prepares change-oriented scholar-practitioners committed to advancing more just, inclusive, and sustainable schools, organizations, and communities. Through a transdisciplinary approach, the program integrates theory and practice through shared seminars, applied inquiry, and individualized specialization, enabling students to address complex challenges related to equity, ethics, leadership, and social justice
Students specialize in one of the following transdisciplinary areas of inquiry: Critical Pedagogy; Environmental and Sustainability Education; Humane Education; Multicultural and Anti-Racist Education; Social Emotional Learning; Social Justice Leadership; Waldorf Education; or Self-Designed.
Specializations may include seminars, individualized study, and opportunities to take courses across Antioch University programs. Students may also transfer approved graduate credits in alignment with program requirements. Each student’s dissertation will fall within the chosen specialization.
The program culminates in a Practice-Based Dissertation that establishes students as scholar-practitioners who design and implement meaningful, research-informed solutions to complex challenges in schools, organizations, communities, and national and global contexts.
Social Emotional Learning Specialization
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process through which young people and adults develop a set of skills for becoming emotionally literate, are able to combine thinking and feeling to make optimal decisions, deepen and maintain healthy relationships, solve problems, and reach personal and collective goals. SEL also comprises the strategies and processes for promoting and infusing SEL into the fabric of an educational community.
Educators who practice and promote these SEL competencies enable students to learn, grow, and thrive, with more positive social behaviors, increased academic performance, and greater engagement with peers and adults. Longitudinal studies affirm that SEL programs promote positive youth development, with student outcomes reflecting school, career, and life success, along with commitment to community.
The field of social emotional learning has blossomed over the past several decades and is increasingly recognized as an essential component of education in K-12, higher education, and community settings. This SEL specialization will lay the groundwork for educators in school and community based organizations and independent SEL consultants to advocate for, develop, implement, and assess social emotional learning instruction, curriculum, policies, and procedures. Acknowledging that the scope of SEL is broad, the SEL specialization allows for much flexibility in focus while maintaining consistency and rigor with a deep inquiry into the broad range of SEL scholarship and practice. All students in the SEL specialization will develop scholar/practitioner and leadership, assessment, and intervention skills, applicable in all educational settings. Benchmarks for SEL implementation include all students and adults developing SEL skills, SEL integrated into classrooms to enhance academic learning, and the whole school using SEL to build a thriving learning community. Students in this specialization will also explore the intersectionality of SEL with equity, cultural competence, and social justice.
Throughout the program, students will continue to develop and deepen their own SEL skills for greater self-awareness, intentionality, and purpose, essentially “walking the talk.” Through assessments, self-reflection, and cohort discussion, students will develop their own SEL competencies, allowing for more meaningful relationships with their own students and colleagues, reducing stress and burn-out, and modeling SEL behaviors and attitudes for students and the community.
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