The Doctoral Curriculum:

An Overview of Key Elements

The doctoral learning sequence consists of four phases. These phases are designed to allow participants to acquire the skills of interdisciplinary scholarship and research, to explore specific areas of interest in depth, to apply their learning in a professional context, and to complete a comprehensive scholarly project.

Phase I (Foundation Courses):
Phase One provides the framework and boundaries of interdisciplinary environmental scholarship. Organized around a series of intensive courses, students develop the conceptual foundations to understand research themes, topic areas, information sources, scientific inquiry, and controversial issues in the following realms: research philosophies, ecological thought, the principles of ecology, global environmental change, political economy of environmental issues, and environmental history.

Phase One coursework is integrative, theoretical, and conceptual, offering a wide range of courses that espouse a clear direction and vision, and reflect a broad array of faculty and student interests. Depending on who teaches and takes Environmental History, one might, for example, study philosophy of nature, diverse perspectives of nature in historical time, environmental ethics, or the history of American environmentalism. Similarly, Global Environmental Change can emphasize global warming, biodiversity, population studies, earth systems science, international environmental geopolitics, or attend to different interests of the learning community. This flexibility is essential, yet at the same time, the courses reflect unifying goals and objectives. These courses are taught so as to delineate the seminal conceptual themes, to emphasize research issues in the subject, and to explore research ideas and fields of study.

Two courses are offered during the summer semester (ten days in late June). Two courses are offered concurrently over a three-day period, Friday noon to Sunday noon, during the first weekend of each month (fall and spring semesters). All students proceed together through this required sequence of courses.

Phase II (Research Strategies and Learning Domains):
During Phase Two students participate in an individualized, contracted learning program reflecting their academic and professional orientation. Students participate in a two-semester-long research seminar in which they learn the methodologies and literature that are appropriate to their work. In combination with selected courses, tutorials, and independent studies, they construct individualized academic strategies. All participants attend the intensive summer session (ten days in late June) and attend three intensive three-day weekend seminars each fall and spring semester.

A crucial function of the second phase of the doctoral program is the development of an individualized learning contract, what we call the Learning Domain— a constellation of ideas, approaches, cultures, and traditions that comprise the student's learning interests. The Learning Domain stresses the importance of depth. However, there is a difference between depth and specialization. Our philosophy is that each student will craft an individual approach to knowledge, requiring specific, novel organization.

The Learning Domain represents a coherent field of study, including (1) distinct subject matter, (2) a body of theory and methods, and (3) a history of critical discourse. During the summer of Phase Two, students will develop a learning contract that outlines the academic goals and objectives inherent in the Learning Domain, and forms the core of the second and third phases of the program. They are expected to develop a systematic plan of study that covers theory, practice, research methodologies, networks, and the seminal literature. Their plans must also include evidence of applied research which links their academic work with their professional goals. The purpose of the Learning Domain is to provide a reflective, research-oriented context for the field of study—unique for each student.

Students, in conjunction with faculty advisors, will assess their academic and professional goals, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and determine relevant paths of exploration and appropriate educational methodologies. Students may choose to take approved graduate courses (including those offered at Antioch University New England or elsewhere), or design a series of reading seminars, tutorials, and independent studies. Students are encouraged to study advanced research methods, drawing from resources available at Antioch University New England (e.g., GIS computer lab; quantitative and qualitative statistics courses offered in the MS and PsyD programs; field study courses to field test methods; independent studies of particular research methods) or through approved graduate courses offered elsewhere. Their choice of approaches will depend on their learning style, the content of their Learning Domain, their conception of learning communities, and their geographical location. Their work will be monitored throughout the year via meetings with faculty and through the electronic conferencing system.

Phase III (Candidacy Projects):
Phase Three is organized around three major projects: the Integrated Essay, the Service Project, and the Dissertation Proposal. The Integrated Essay provides an opportunity to synthesize and organize knowledge, to contribute new ideas to an emerging field of study, to review and critique the seminal theoretical perspectives, and to suggest further amplification for scholarship, research, and/or professional practice. This is the culmination of the Learning Domain, demonstrating the ability to construct an intellectual taxonomy, an interpretive synthesis, and to apply that synthesis to contemporary environmental issues. The Integrated Essay demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of the crucial intellectual paths that support the student's scholarly interests.

The Service Projectis an opportunity to cooperate with a specific institution, organization, or community group addressing concerns of relevance to the student's academic work. This provides a public context for the student's scholarly interests, lending expertise to a project, and allowing the student to learn from the experience of the community. The emphasis is on the integration of the graduate school with the community, building broad coalitions for environmental work, and using the doctoral learning process as a service for diverse constituencies.

With the Dissertation Proposal, the student poses challenging research questions and constructs comprehensive frameworks and strategies for addressing those questions. Now equipped with a tool box of research strategies, aware of the epistemological dimensions of various methodological approaches, the student chooses a topic for research that emerges from the Learning Domain, incorporates his or her scholarly interests, contributes to the discourse of a broader community of scholars, and broadens understanding of environmental issues.

We assume that for each student, the timing and sequence of the Service Project will be different. Professional commitments may dictate different schedules. Therefore, the Service Project and Integrated Essay may occur at any time during Phase Three. However, the Service Project and Integrated Essay must be completed before the Dissertation Proposal. Simultaneous with this work, during the summer and fall semester, students participate in a Theory and Practice Seminar in which they discuss their work and consider its significance.

We expect the dissertation to emerge out of one or both of these projects. The Service Project may result in some new initiatives which spark ideas for research. The Integrative Essay may raise a series of potential research questions. During the spring of Phase Three, students participate in a Dissertation Proposal Seminar which allows them to formulate their ideas, consider research models, and develop their dissertation proposals. The Service Project, the Integrated Essay, and the Dissertation Proposal represent the Candidacy Phase of the program. Students cannot proceed with the dissertation until they have accomplished these projects. In effect, these projects demonstrate the ability to undertake a dissertation. These projects are viewed as opportunities to implement research, to synthesize information, to complete bounded projects in a short time frame, and to directly contribute to the environmental profession.

During Phase Three, students attend a ten-day summer session and weekend seminars in September, November, February, and April.

Phase IV (The Dissertation Process):
Phase Four is devoted to the formulation and execution of the Doctoral Dissertation. Students develop an understanding of the potential impact of dissertation work, and an awareness of how the dissertation results in products that will contribute to environmental knowledge and practice.

We concur with the Council of Graduate Schools policy statement on the role of the dissertation, that it should (1) reveal the student's ability to analyze, interpret, and synthesize information; (2) demonstrate the student's knowledge of the literature relating to the project or at least acknowledge prior scholarship on which the dissertation is built; (3) describe the methods and procedures used; (4) present results in a sequential and logical manner; and (5) display the student's ability to discuss fully and coherently the meaning of the results.

Through the dissertation process, the student learns how to frame and solve a problem in a scholarly fashion, demonstrate an academic understanding of the boundaries of the project, consider multiple perspectives on the subject, and understand the professional context of the study.

We emphasize that in choosing a topic, the student is involved in a highly engaged, dynamic, learning conversation with the environmental profession. We encourage research that has direct social, environmental, political, and educational impact. We encourage research that can be used by environmental groups and organizations and research that contributes to knowledge about urgent contemporary issues. In each case, the student must demonstrate how the dissertation process is embodied in this scholar/practitioner dialectic.

During Phase Four, students attend a five-day summer session and weekend seminars in September, November, February, and April.

Click here for a Program Curriculum Flow Chart (PDF 68K)