A GRADUATE DEGREE GUIDE
FOR THE PH.D. IN ART EDUCATION AT PENN STATE

(Each program develops guidelines specific to the program that meets the Graduate School's minimum requirements. Please note that this is not an official document and that it is subject to revision and elaboration by all interested parties. Updated August 2007.)

1. Admission to the Ph.D. Program in Art Education

Welcome! The following is a series of steps that will guide you through the process of completing the Ph.D. program in art education at The Pennsylvania State University. Your admission to the program is the starting point on your journey. Refer to the art education admissions page for specifics on what is required in the admissions portfolio and for the Graduate School requirements and process.

Penn State’s Ph.D. program in art education is unique in that it offers the official option of a dual degree in women’s studies. Click this link to learn more.

2. The Assignment of a Temporary Advisor and a Temporary Committee

New doctoral students are assigned a temporary advisor and a temporary committee. Prior to the students’ arrival, they will receive a letter from the Graduate Program Coordinator outlining the details of these assignments. Please note that these assignments are temporary; you will eventually nominate your permanent advisor and committee. Temporary advisors assist students in selecting courses, planning a program of study, and becoming familiar with the graduate program. Your temporary committee dissolves following your successful completion of the English Language Competency Examination and the Candidacy Examination. During the term of the temporary advisory committee, you are identified as a doctoral student; after passing the Candidacy Examination, you will be considered a doctoral candidate.

3. English Language Competency Examination

The English Language Competency Examination is an assessment of English language competency required by the Graduate School. All doctoral students take this exam during their first semester. The exam consists of reading an article and writing a critical response to it during a designated three-hour time period. You will be asked to outline the key arguments made by the author(s) and critically evaluate the logic, assumptions, and ideology embodied in the article in relation to your own perspectives and/or others’ perspectives on these issues.

4. The Candidacy Examination

The Candidacy Examination, a written and oral assessment of the student's knowledge of the field of art education and related fields, occurs toward the end of your second semester. The purpose of the Candidacy Examination is to assess whether you are capable of research and writing that are consistent with doctoral-level study. Students should consult with the chair of their temporary committee to prepare the written candidacy packet. The candidacy packet should include:

· A resume or curriculum vitae (CV).

· A statement of your goals, including discussion of the research direction you are interested in pursuing in the dissertation.

· A list of the courses you have completed so far and a list of the courses you envision taking with an indication of which courses you see as the 12-credit research focus.

· A tentative timeline for completion of your course work, comprehensive exam, proposal, and dissertation.

· A selection of 2 or 3 papers you have written since you have been in the doctoral program. You may also include reflections on the feedback you received on your papers, notes on whether you revised the papers based on that feedback, and reflections on whether there are aspects of the paper that may be relevant to developing the content and direction of the dissertation.

It is your responsibility to schedule an exam date in consultation with your temporary committee members and to reserve a room for this meeting through the art education office staff assistant. You should provide a copy of the candidacy packet to each committee member at least two weeks prior to the scheduled exam. At all stages of graduate work, doctoral candidates are asked to give faculty two weeks to read any exam papers, chapter drafts, etc.

5. Nominating a Permanent Advisor and Committee

Following the Candidacy Exam, you will nominate a permanent advisor and committee. Before making these nominations, you should meet with art education faculty members, including those with whom you have not yet worked, to discuss your emerging dissertation focus. You must secure permission from each faculty member you would like to have nominated to serve on your dissertation committee. Choosing whom to nominate as your advisor and committee members is among the most important decisions you will make during a graduate program.

After a face-to-face meeting with each potential committee member, a written request for the approval of your nominees should be sent to the Graduate Program Coordinator of the art education program. The Graduate Program Coordinator will then forward a formal recommendation to the Graduate School regarding the composition of your committee. The Graduate School then sends a letter of appointment to your committee members, designating one member as chair.

Doctoral committees are appointed by the dean of the Graduate School on the recommendation of the Graduate Program Coordinator. Permanent committees consist of four or more members of the graduate faculty, with at least two representing the major field of study and at least one representing a field outside of it. The chair or at least one co-chair must be a graduate faculty member in the candidate’s doctoral program. Typically, the committee chair or co-chairs serve as the research supervisor(s) for the candidate.

Special members who are not members of the Graduate Faculty but who offer particular expertise in the doctoral candidate's specialty may be added to the committee with the approval of the dean of the Graduate School. If such individuals will participate as readers and critics of the dissertation but not as full participants in the committee's functions, then they may be added as special signatories of the dissertation rather than as committee members. The dean may on occasion appoint one or more members to the committee in addition to those recommended by the Graduate Program Coordinator. (See http://www.gradsch.psu.edu/policies/faculty/criteria.html and http://www.gradsch.psu.edu/policies/faculty/ctaadc.html for further information on Graduate School committee structure policy and procedures)

The Art Education/Women’s Studies dual-title degree doctoral committee should be composed of faculty from the primary program (Art Education), as well as at least one faculty member from the secondary area of study (Women’s Studies). Some art education faculty members have a joint or affiliate appointment in Women’s Studies, which allows them to serve as both the art education and women’s studies member. (See http://www.gradsch.psu.edu/policies/faculty/dualtitle.html for general information on dual degrees and http://www.sova.psu.edu/arted/grad/Phd/dual.htm for information on the Art Education/Women’s Studies dual degree.)

6. Working Committee Meetings

As a doctoral candidate, you may request a working committee meeting at any time, and it is a good idea for you to schedule one soon after your permanent advisory committee has been formalized. One of the topics of discussion is the form and content of the comprehensive examination. You should also request feedback relating to your topic for dissertation inquiry. Meet with your permanent advisory committee at least once each year to: (1) seek guidance, (2) work towards finalizing and approving your dissertation research proposal so that there is a clear understanding of the research goals and objectives, (3) assess the quality and progress of your research, and (4) discuss issues related to your choice of course work.

7. The Doctoral Comprehensive Examination

After you have completed three to six semesters of course work and your permanent committee has been appointed, you will take the Doctoral Comprehensive Examination. The purpose of this examination is for you to demonstrate your ability to synthesize current research in the field of art education and other fields through written scholarly research papers, thereby demonstrating that you are ready to write a dissertation. Your committee, in consultation with you, will determine the number of papers, their focus, the length of papers, and time period to complete the comprehensive exam papers.

The comprehensive examination has two parts, a written and an oral component. First, the candidate writes responses to questions submitted by committee members. The candidate’s responses to the examination questions are returned to the art education office staff assistant, who will distribute them to each member of the candidate's committee. During past years, committees have typically given candidates two or three weeks for responding to each question.

The second part of the examination consists of a two-hour oral examination relating to the written responses to the committee questions as well as to any other questions that the committee members may wish to ask. The candidate is responsible for arranging the oral portion of the Doctoral Comprehensive Examination after consultation with his or her committee chair. The oral part of the comprehensive examination must be scheduled at least three weeks in advance through the Graduate School. The oral part of the comprehensive examination should also be timed to allow committee members at least two weeks from their receipt of written exam to complete all reading.

8. The Dissertation Proposal

Following the successful completion of your comprehensive examination, you must submit a written proposal for approval of your dissertation research. The proposal is developed in consultation with the chair of your committee and, after approval by your committee chair, is circulated to members of your committee. You will then schedule a meeting with the committee to decide if the proposal is approved or needs to be further developed. Allow at least two weeks before the meeting for the committee to read the proposal.

9. The Dissertation

You will work with your dissertation advisor, generally the chair of your committee, to prepare the first drafts of the dissertation. You should expect multiple revisions. When the chair decides your draft is ready, it will be circulated to the rest of the committee for feedback. For each round of feedback, you must allow at least two weeks for committee members to read and respond. Doctoral candidates typically find it helpful to meet with their committee members several times during the process of writing the dissertation. You and your dissertation advisor should plan a calendar with target dates that will allow ample time for the final draft to be read by your committee and revised by you before it is due at the Graduate School.

The Graduate School establishes specifications for the format of the dissertation. Your dissertation must conform exactly to these specifications or it will not be accepted by the Graduate School. Early in the development of the dissertation project, you should obtain a copy of the Graduate School “Thesis Guide” from the Graduate School Office of Theses and Publications, 115 Kern Building, or at http://www.gradsch.psu.edu/current/thesis.html. Typically, the art education program has expected students to use APA formatting and style guidelines because that style is commonly used by professional journals in the art education field.

According to the Graduate School Web site, “A doctoral thesis must be submitted and archived electronically” (http://www.gradsch.psu.edu/current/thesis.html, accessed May 11, 2007). Information on electronic submissions can be found at http://www.etd.psu.edu/.

A polished version of the dissertation should be given to the committee at least two weeks before the scheduled defense. In some cases (for example, if a member of the committee is out of town), it may be necessary to allow more time for reading this version of your dissertation. Do not count on a last-minute rush! In addition to allowing time for a round of feedback from the whole committee before scheduling the final defense, and time for your revisions in response to your committee’s feedback, you will also need to allow time for final revisions following the defense.

Check the Graduate School calendar to find out when you must complete the format check, schedule the final oral, and submit the finished dissertation—and then count backward to determine when your polished version should go out to your committee members. You should plan on at least 6-8 weeks from the time you give the whole committee the full draft of the dissertation until the date of the oral defense. Since the last date for an oral defense is typically around the middle of a semester, you will need to give your committee a full draft of your dissertation no later that the first week of the semester in which you expect to graduate.

A bound copy of the completed dissertation, as accepted by the Graduate School, is to be supplied for the art education program's collection. This bound copy may be a photocopy. As a gesture of courtesy, it is suggested that the student also present a bound copy to the advisor and to each member of the committee.

10. The Final Defense

One of the final steps in your process is an oral defense of your dissertation. You are responsible for scheduling this meeting, which is open to the public. You should provide committee members with copies of your completed dissertation at least three weeks prior to the final oral defense. The art education program requires three weeks’ notice for scheduling your defense. Schedule your oral defense through the art education staff assistant.

You must be registered as a full-time or part-time degree student for the semester in which you complete your final oral defense.

The oral defense will be two hours long. At the start of the meeting, you will be asked to leave the room while committee members discuss your dissertation briefly and plan their questioning strategy. When candidates return, they typically make a brief presentation (usually 10-15 minutes), including what they did, what the findings were, and what the significance of the findings are to the field of art education. Your committee will then engage you in a discussion of your study. Following that discussion, you will again be asked to step out of the room while the committee reaches a decision with regard to the dissertation, your presentation of the study, and your responses to the committee’s questions and comments.

Possible decisions are: passing, passing with minor revisions, passing with major revisions, or failing. A candidate who passes with minor revisions must revise the dissertation in response to required changes stipulated by the committee. Prior to the candidate’s filing of the dissertation, these revisions must be approved by the dissertation advisor. A candidate who passes with major revisions follows a similar process, but in this case all members of the committee may ask to review and approve the revisions.

11. Graduation

Candidates who plan to graduate at the end of the current semester/session are responsible for indicating an intent to graduate. Using the "Graduating this Semester" application on eLion, you can set or remove your intent. For more information, see http://registrar.psu.edu/graduation/intent.cfm

The University holds commencement exercises for graduate students three times a year: at the end of the fall and spring semesters and at the end of the summer session. Attendance at commencement exercises is encouraged, but you may receive the degree in absentia.

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