Individualized Areas of Study
Student Examples
Program Outline
Residency
Colloquia Schedule
The primary mode of academic engagement for doctoral students is independent study guided by doctoral committees. Each student's committee consists of a core faculty member, and three adjunct faculty. Adjunct faculty members have personal and professional knowledge of sustainability education, as well as expertise in the student's planned individual focus areas.
During their academic careers at Prescott College, doctoral students:
- Attend colloquia at the College that lead to the formation of strong and supportive cohort groups;
- Participate in collaborative, foundational courses that enhance and strengthen the cohort process through effective use of modern information-sharing technology--such as electronic conferencing, e-mail, and listservs--balanced by face-to-face contact at regular colloquia;
- Develop and pursue focused, individualized studies ordered around the central theme of sustainability education with the support of strong advising and mentoring provided by the students' doctoral committee;
- Explore various methods of scholarship through preparation of professional quality papers and presentations;
- Apply their studies in a practicum; and
- Demonstrate their competence in a dissertation/project.
Individualized Areas of Study
Each student is asked to develop vision and purpose statements, as well as program proposals, for formal coursework and a practicum that ultimately lead to an action-oriented dissertation/project that demonstrates passionate scholarship in sustainability education. With advice from their committee members, students revise their individualized focus areas which were originally submitted with their application materials. These can be illustrated with a few hypothetical examples:
Examples of Individualized Areas of Study
Education for Sustainability
Sustainable Eating
Education for Sustainability
A recent student interested in education for sustainability submitted an application that focused on environmental health in Bolivia. The following is a synopsized version of his Program Proposal which was five pages in length.
Courses:
- Transforming Environmental Health Behavior through Education and Social Marketing
- Cross-cultural Practices for Connecting with Nature
- Administration of Environmental Education, Advocacy Organizations, and Study Abroad Programs
- The Science of Environmental Education and Advocacy
- Transforming Environmental Health by Utilizing the Power of the Bolivian Government and International Institutions
- The Political Economy, Law, and Culture of Environmental Health in Bolivia
- Research Methodologies and Methods Course: Measuring Contamination
Practicum: Environmental Health Advocacy: Documenting the Most Urgent Environmental Health Threats in Bolivia. In this practicum the student will determine which are the most urgent environmental health threats in Bolivia. Based on the initial research, the student will visit a few selected sites and assess contamination impact using a variety of measuring techniques.
Dissertation: Integrating Sustainability Education: A Case Study in Experiential Environmental Health Education/Advocacy in Bolivia. The proposed dissertation focuses on holistic, experiential, deep ecological, liberationist environmental health education/advocacy. The student will develop a philosophical and theoretical basis upon which to create integrationist environmental health education/advocacy.
Sustainable Eating
Another student chose to focus her studies on Sustainable Eating. This is a synopsis of the four-page Program Proposal she submitted.
Courses:
- Sustainable Eating: Individual Psychological Factors Affecting Food Choices
- Biochemistry of Nutrition and Health
- Challenges in Sustainability: Politics, Economics, Media and Social Influences on Sustainable Eating
- Sustainability Education: Change Methodologies and Motivational Factors in Health Promotion Supporting Sustainable Food Choices
- Putting it Together: Supporting the Cycle of Societal Sustainable Eating: Production, Procurement, and Waste Management
- Research Methods for Public Health Promotion
Practic(a)um Ideas: Develop and/or implement a marketing and education campaign around community supported agriculture; become a farmer's market education program volunteer; work with the local organic farmers' association to encourage connections between farmers, schools, and families for a farm-to-school program initiative and educate the community to support the project.
Dissertation: It Takes a Village: Changing Our Weight Through Sustainable Eating Education, Community Inspiration, and Individual Motivation. This research will seek to confirm that sustainable educational models, which support personal freedom, encourage individual motivation to increase sustainable eating choices. Areas of further development include the variable level of community support of the program and how this affects participant outcomes.
Program Outline
Doctoral students complete this program in four phases during a minimum of four and a maximum of seven years.
Phase One
The first year of the program is devoted to participating in foundational courses. Interdisciplinary and exploratory, the coursework is designed to help students develop a broad understanding of sustainability education as well as prepare for more specialized studies. During this first phase, students also create personal learning contracts based upon their Program Proposals for individual focus areas and work with core faculty members to convene their doctoral committees.
Three foundational courses will be taken during Phase One
Course 1: Sustainability Theory and Practice
In this course, with faculty guidance, students individually and collectively examine the intellectual history and current status of the concept of sustainability, potential applications of the various sustainability narratives in solving the problems of global and local unsustainable development, and how these theories and practices can inform our own areas of special interest.
Course 2: Transformational Learning and Sustainability Education
In this course, students and faculty members study the prevailing structures and processes of education and social change with the intention of collaboratively discovering transformative approaches (paradigms) that may help sustain the environment, the whole person, communities, and global society.
Course 3: Modes of Scholarly Inquiry, Systems Thinking, and Action Research
This course is an overview of scholarly inquiry, systems thinking, and action research, especially as they relate to sustainability education.
Phase Two
During the second phase, year two, students participate in a planned, individualized program of learning that reflects their personal, academic, and specialized orientations. With support from faculty members and their cohort group, students revise and further develop their four to six independent study theory courses which they submitted with their application materials in the Program Proposal. Adjunct faculty members supervise these courses. This phase will culminate with a comprehensive assessment that demonstrates the student's ability to integrate knowledge in sustainability education in a broad, deep and scholarly manner.
Phase Three
The third phase, generally the third year, is organized around three major learning projects: the practicum, intensive study of research methodologies and methods, and the dissertation/project proposal. Each student creates and/or participates in one or more practica where the emphasis is on providing service to a community and learning from the experience. Each student also participates in at least one research methodologies and methods course relevant to his/her individual focus area and dissertation/project. Finally, the student produces and has approved a dissertation/project proposal. During this phase, students complete a comprehensive assessment of their learning to date.
Phase Four
The fourth phase and final year is devoted to the implementation and completion of the doctoral dissertation/project, which consists of two separate but closely interrelated components. One component is a traditional dissertation that provides documentation of rigorous scholarship and research that support the project. The project component is a practical application of the student's expertise in an individual focus area (for example, develop and initiate new formal or non-formal educational programs, perform policy analyses, organize community-based sustainability programs, or act/study in any other way that brings about a more sustainable society.)
Residency
The Ph.D. program is based on a low-residency model in which students attend colloquia which are opportunities for collaboration, interdisciplinary learning, presentation, research, and teaching about topics and issues related to the doctoral students' programs of study. Students are required to attend all the colloquia and each student commits to making a significant contribution to at least one colloquium per year. Please click here for the colloquia schedule.
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