The PhD program in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction was designed to develop the epistemological, ontological, axiological, and methodological expertise required of burgeoning scholars to independently conduct educational research in a wide range of settings.
Please contact Dr. Karen Spector (kspector@ua.edu), Director of Curriculum & Instruction Doctoral Programs, with all questions (except those related to the Music Education focal area). All questions related to the Music Education focal area should be directed to the Graduate Coordinator and Chair of Music Education, Dr. Carl Hancock (chancock@ua.edu).
Admission Requirements
The Ph.D. program accepts applications for summer or fall semester entry only. In the fall, admitted students will begin a 4-course sequenced core curriculum with their cohort.
Application Deadline
Priority application deadline for Fall 2025 entry: November 8, 2024. Submission by the priority deadline enables us to inform the most qualified applicants of our decision to accept them into the program in January 2025, thereby allowing newly admitted PhD students more time to plan for moving to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This extra time is often needed for international students seeking student visas.
Regular application deadline for Fall 2025 entry: January 3, 2025.
Regardless of which application deadline you choose, all applicants will receive an admission decision with funding offers, if applicable, before or by March 1, 2025.
Music Education students should contact the Music Education Graduate Coordinator for deadline information.
Application Requirements
In addition to the minimum Graduate School admission requirements, to be considered for regular admission an application must include:
- Curriculum Vitae
- Statement of Purpose that addresses the specific area of research that interests you. If you write something general, such as “math ed,” then we will know to whom we should route your application, but we still will not know what problems or questions related to mathematics education interest you. If you write something extremely broad, such as “curriculum development,” then we will not even know who should review your application. Applications with very general interests are not likely to get favorable reviews from faculty. Even though your interests will certainly change after entering the program, it is important at this stage to be specific enough in your description that we can assess whether or not we have faculty here willing and able to support your interests.
- Three (3) letters of recommendation, including at least one from a professor who can write about the applicant's potential as a scholar.
A preferred qualification is for two years of experience in related professions, curriculum design, or instructing learners at any level, in the U.S. or abroad. Not everyone who meets minimal qualifications will be admitted to the program. For example, Music Education prefers a minimum of three years of successful contractual teaching as a certified teacher and at least one degree in music education (master's or bachelor's).
See the Admission Criteria section of this catalog for more information.
Curriculum Requirements
NOTE: No student shall register for classes before meeting with their Major Professor for guidance. Music Education students should meet with the MUE Graduate Program Coordinator.
| Code and Title | Hours | |
|---|---|---|
| Sequenced core doctoral courses in C&I (minimum of 12 credit hours) | 12 | |
| Concept Frameworks in C&I Res | ||
| Research in Learning in C&I | ||
| Research on Learning in C&I | ||
| Critical Research in C&I | ||
| Note: These courses shall not be used to meet Research Methods requirements. | ||
| Focal Area of Study within C&I | 18 | |
| Students will choose from 9 focal areas: | ||
1) Early Elementary and Social Emotional Learning | ||
2) Elementary Education | ||
3) Literacies and Languages (prek-16 and adult) | ||
4) Social Studies Education (prek-16 and adult) | ||
5) Mathematics Education (prek-16 and adult) | ||
6) Science Education (prek-16 and adult) | ||
7) STEM Education (prek-16 and adult) | ||
8) Transformative Education (prek-16 and adult) | ||
9) Music Education | ||
| Research Methods | 12 | |
| (e.g., courses with BER prefix as approved by your Major Professor or MUE Graduate Coordinator for music education students) | ||
| Foundations of Education | 6 | |
| (e.g., courses with AEL, BEF, and BEP prefixes, as approved by your Major Professor or MUE Graduate Coordinator for music education students) | ||
| Dissertation Hours | 18 | |
| CEE 699, CSE 699, or MUE 699 for Music Education students | ||
| Total Hours | 66 | |
Transfer Credit
At the discretion of the Major Professor or MUE Graduate Coordinator, it may be possible to transfer 24 credit hours from a relevant master’s or EdS program.
Graduate School information on Transfer Credit.
Doctoral Plan of Study
Within 20 hours or less, students will submit a Plan of Study, which will be agreed upon with a program of study committee (and, for those with a focal area of study in Music Education, based on results of the MUE Diagnostic Exam*).
The Plan of Study committee includes the Major Professor and a minimum of four additional faculty, one of whom must be external to the department and at least three of whom must hold faculty lines within Curriculum & Instruction. At least three of the committee members must have Full Graduate Faculty status. For music education students, the committee includes all MUE graduate faculty with the Graduate Coordinator serving as chair.
*For those with a focused area of study in Music Education, the MUE Diagnostic Examination will be taken no later than the second semester in residence. The student must register for MUE 631 Doctor of Philosophy Diagnostic/Admission Exam, a zero credit-hour course, to show successful completion of the examination.
Yearly Plan and Review
Each year PhD students will participate in a Yearly Plan and Review (YP&R), except for Year 1, for which students shall complete only the Yearly Plan. The YP&R is due at the beginning of each academic year to create a plan for the new year and to review the prior year.
Graduate School information on the Doctoral Plan of Study.
Comprehensive Exam
The goals of the comprehensive examination are (a) to give students an opportunity to reflect on and integrate the knowledge and skills they have developed in their doctoral studies, and (b) to give faculty members the opportunity to evaluate whether students show sufficient breadth and depth of knowledge and skills in their particular fields.
Students are eligible to take the examination when they have 6-9 credit hours of coursework remaining in their program. There are now three options (A-C) for comprehensive exams, as noted below.
Option A: Traditional Comps
The student’s program of study must be on file in the program office, and a Doctoral Committee Advisory form must be completed and on file in the program office. It is the student's responsibility to complete the Application for Comprehensive Exams (available from the Curriculum & Instruction Department office—Autherine Lucy Hall 204). The student must submit the request to take the comprehensive examination at least 3 weeks in advance of the time in which the exam will be taken. This request form must be signed by the program planning committee chair.
Option A Procedures
Students will be provided with three (3) questions relative to their expertise and research interests that are to be completed independently. The Plan of Study Committee Chair contacts the program committee members who will write questions for the examination. The date will be determined by the student in conjunction with the Chair of the student's Doctoral Program Advisory Committee. The questions will be delivered electronically to the student with receipt required by the SCTL or elementary program secretary. The completed exam must be returned electronically to the SCTL or elementary education program assistant within 10 calendar days.
Each question will include appropriate subsections to ensure that all areas identified are assessed. Faculty members from the student's advisory committee will write the questions and may assist students by clarifying any details about the questions. No additional assistance may be obtained from the faculty members or any other individuals (see http://education.ua.edu/ academics/ci/). Students are required to give numerous and appropriate references to the sources they use and to include a reference section in their examinations. Plagiarism on the exam will be considered academic misconduct, resulting in automatic failure of the examination and possible termination from the program. Students who are unclear on what constitutes plagiarism or the improper paraphrasing of others’ work are advised to ask for guidelines from department faculty members. Students wishing additional clarification on a question can approach the faculty member who wrote the question.
The electronically submitted responses for each question should be comprehensive. Each response should be approximately 20 double-spaced pages with one-inch margins. The written comprehensive exam is considered passed when all questions are passed. The committee has the option of requiring an oral defense of the comprehensive exam, in which case a student passes the exam only when they pass both the written and oral portions. The Option A comprehensive exam will be assessed using rubrics available on the C&I PhD website.
Students are allowed two attempts to pass comprehensive exams, as stated in The University of Alabama Graduate Catalog.
- If a student fails the first attempt at comprehensive exams, a remediation plan will be established with the student and Program of Study chair. Additional faculty members may be included in the remediation plan as deemed appropriate by the Program of Study chair. The remediation plan will be submitted in writing to the department chair for approval.
- Students are not allowed to attempt the comprehensive exams twice within the same semester.
- Upon successful completion of remediation, as determined by the Program of Study chair, the student will be allowed a second attempt to pass comprehensive exams.
- Questions for the second attempt at comprehensive exams are to be written by the same faculty members who wrote questions for the first attempt. Program of Study faculty members may use the same questions for both attempts, as deemed appropriate by the Program of Study Chair.
- Faculty members who grade responses from the first attempt at comprehensive exams are to grade the responses from second attempt, when appropriate and/or feasible.
A student who fails the second attempt at comprehensive exams, Option A, will be dismissed from the degree program and from the Graduate School (Graduate Catalog Policies 4.11.1, 4.11.2, 4.11.3)
Option B: Publishable Paper
Overview
The outcome of this option will be one high-quality research manuscript written by the student and evaluated by committee members. The manuscript does not have to be accepted for publication to be deemed acceptable by committee members. IRB approval for research involving human subjects is required.
Committee Structure
The student’s Major Professor (hereafter chair) and two other Plan of Study Committee Members will comprise the Option B Comps committee. This committee will review the concept paper and final manuscript. The three committee members will be referred to as the committee throughout the remainder of this document.
The recommended steps in the process are outlined below.
Concept Paper Packet
Students will complete a Concept Paper Packet describing the proposed study as early as possible in their program. For full-time students this packet would typically be completed in the second semester of the first year or first semester of the second year, or the summer between these two semesters (see suggested timeline below).
The Concept Paper Packet will include:
- A Cover Sheet that declares this option as the student’s requested choice.
- An identified chair, with their signature on the cover sheet;
- A 5-10 page literature review (reviewing substantive, peer-reviewed literature including landmark research; may be a systematic literature review or other approved option);
- A specific research question or hypothesis that follows from the literature reviewed;
- An identified dataset or original data collection plan that will be utilized for analyses to answer the research question;
- A brief description of the dataset’s sampling approach, data collection procedures, dates of data collection, primary variables, etc.;
- A data analysis plan with sufficient level of detail for the committee to give input;
- A list of at least 3 target journals that will be potentially used for the submission, including their impact factor and author guidelines;
- Status of an IRB protocol approving the use of human subjects.
The chair will actively advise the student choosing this option. Early steps may include providing materials such as sample IRB protocols, journal articles, journal requirements, sample journal feedback, journal review criteria, and other materials deemed appropriate by the chair.
The chair will work closely with the student on all aspects of Option B. As one of the first steps, the chair will work with the student to develop the concept paper which describes the research idea and plan in enough detail for the additional two committee members to provide meaningful input.
Once the chair approves the concept paper packet (outlined above), they will pass on the packet to the committee for input and approval. The Committee Review Form will be used by the committee to provide feedback to the student, via the chair. Once all approvals are obtained, the student may proceed with the research.
The committee will give feedback to the student (via the chair) regarding the concept and approach, and the chair will take primary responsibility to work with the student to incorporate any needed changes.
Suggested Timeline
The following are general guidelines and a timeline based on three years of full-time coursework, but the student and chair should discuss a realistic and specific timeline.
Fall, 1st Year: Students will be introduced to the Research Publication Option in the student orientation and in the first course in the sequenced curriculum.
Spring, 1st Year: Students will take the second course in sequenced curriculum and work with the chair in developing a concept paper.
Summer After 1st Year: Students will begin working closely with the chair and put together their Concept Paper Packet. Once the chair is satisfied with the Concept Paper Packet, they will submit the packet to the committee.
Fall, 2nd Year: Students will enroll in the third course in sequenced curriculum and will use this semester to conduct their research, analyze data, and begin writing.
Spring, 2nd Year: Complete a full draft of the manuscript. The chair will review the manuscript and approve/disapprove it. If it is deemed insufficiently developed, the student will continue working on the draft until sufficient progress is made. Once it is approved by the chair, the paper will be submitted to the committee who will have at least two weeks to review the manuscript, make suggestions, and approve/disapprove it.
Committee Review of Submitted Publishable Paper
Once the Publishable Paper is approved by the chair, it will be submitted to the committee who will have at least two weeks to review the submission, make suggestions, and approve/disapprove it.
Links to the comprehensive exam rubrics can be found on the C&I PhD website page.
Should revisions be necessary before approval, the student will have 30 days to make revisions and resubmit the manuscript to the chair or to the committee, depending upon initial outcome.
A student must receive a rating of “acceptable as is” by at least 2 of 3 committee members to pass this option and move on to an oral defense. Once the written portion is passed, the oral defense will be scheduled. The oral defense will be a 20-minute conference style presentation followed by committee questions. Students must pass both the written and oral portions to pass.
A student may change to the Traditional Comprehensive Exam (Option A) at any time, even after submitting the second draft of the Research Publication Option.
After Approval of the Publishable Paper
To be advanced to candidacy, the student must pass one of the comprehensive exam options and complete all but 6 credit hours of coursework.
Authorship
The student is expected to produce the Publishable Paper with input and direction from faculty, but without co-authoring. If the paper is subsequently submitted for publication, the student will be first author. The committee and potentially others (other graduate students, other faculty, and so forth), may be co-authors of the paper when it is submitted for publication, depending upon the amount of input each gives to the final submission. An authorship agreement should be created by the student and signed by all authors in advance of authorship collaboration.
There is no limitation on a student authoring or co-authoring other papers before, during, or after participating in the Publishable Paper Option for comprehensive exams.
Option C: Creative and Scholarly Activity Projects (Music Education students only)
Overview
This option is an alternative specifically for Music Education students. Minimally, the goal of this option are three (3) music education projects. The projects may comprise work completed in MUE/MUA/MUS graduate courses and may be completed as a combination with or in addition to such courses according to the following stipulations. The projects will be approved by the graduate program coordinator; be deemed by the advisory committee to be exemplary of sufficient quality, substance, and breadth for presentation/publication/performance in a professional forum; and afford the doctoral student an opportunity to develop potential foci for future work of a scholarly, curricular, or creative nature. Documentation for such projects will be decided in advance and must be approved by a majority of the committee. An oral presentation will be given as a 60-minute presentation with committee questions. Students must receive a rating of “acceptable as is” by at least a majority of committee members in order to pass this option.
Committee Structure
The Graduate Program Coordinator and all members of the music education graduate faculty will comprise the committee. This committee will review the three projects and attend the oral presentation of these by the student. A majority of committee members must deem the three projects of sufficient merit to qualify the candidate for candidacy.
Graduate School information on Comprehensive Exams.
Admission to Candidacy
Upon successful completion of the comprehensive examination, the student will be admitted to candidacy and can begin taking dissertation hours in the semester following completion of comps Option A, B, or C. Students may sit for the comprehensive examination in their final semester of coursework.
Graduate School information on Admission to Candidacy.
Continuous Doctoral Registration Hours Requirement
Graduate School information on Continuous Doctoral Registration Hours Requirement.
Dissertation Requirements
Dissertation Research, Writing, and Defense
The student will identify the doctoral dissertation committee membership, which will follow the same guidelines as did the Plan of Study committee formation. The student will develop the dissertation proposal with input from the committee, present it in writing and orally to the committee for approval, and revise as needed until it is acceptable to the committee.
Once admitted to candidacy, the student will complete and defend the dissertation proposal and the proposed dissertation research under the supervision of their Major Advisor and dissertation committee. Upon completion of the dissertation research, the student will work with their Major Professor in drafting/revising all chapters. When the Major Professor deems the research ready to move forward, the student will schedule a dissertation defense date and share the dissertation with the committee, typically 3-4 weeks before the scheduled defense date. The student must successfully defend the work via an oral presentation to the committee, which is also open to the public, and therefore must be advertised via the Slate portal. A successful defense may still entail some revision to the written dissertation.
Graduate School information on Dissertation Requirements.
Time Limit for Degree Completion
Graduate School information on Time Limits.
Academic Misconduct
Graduate School information on Academic Misconduct.
Withdrawals and Leave of Absence
Graduate School information on Withdrawals and Leave of Absence.
Academic Grievances
Graduate School information on Academic Grievances.
Grades and Academic Standing
Graduate School information on Grades and Academic Standing.
Graduate School Deadlines
Information on Graduate School Deadlines.
Application for Graduation
Information on the Application for Graduation.