Art Education
College of Arts and Architecture
School of Visual Arts
Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Art Education
The Ph.D. degree program in art education is an academic research degree. Ph.D. candidates are expected to conduct independent research in which they make a significant contribution to art education through the development, extension, refinement, or evaluation of theoretical issues. Candidates usually find it necessary to take extensive course work in related disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, sociology, or anthropology in order to acquire the necessary theoretical and methodological backgrounds to carry out their inquiry. The Ph.D. is expected to take three to four years to complete beyond the M.S. degree. According to Graduate School regulations, all requirements must be met within eight years, though the department reserves the right to stipulate that a student fulfill remaining requirements within a shorter period.
Required Courses
There is no fixed number of courses or credits required for the Ph.D. degree; however, students must fulfill the minimal course requirements listed below. All Ph.D. students are expected to complete the following 12-credit core of four courses: Art Education 502: Research in Art Education, Art Education 505: Foundations of Art Education, Art Education 536: Curriculum Development in Art Education, and Art Education 588: History of Art Education. Additionally, while in residence, Ph.D. students are expected to enroll in Art Education 590: Colloquium for at least one credit each fall semester.
Additional Course Requirements
All Ph.D. students are required to complete 18-credits of course work in art education. These 18-credits comprise the core courses plus two other courses in art education. All Ph.D. students must complete at least two continuous semesters of residency after being admitted to candidacy. A foreign language is not required of Ph.D. candidates. Instead, the inquiry and foreign language requirement for the Ph.D. is met through 12-credits of graduate-level course work in a related discipline as determined by the student's committee in conjunction with the candidate, and are related to the student’s area of research. Although not required, all Ph.D. students are strongly encouraged to complete a minor in an area of study. For an official minor, the student must take at least 15-credits in the minor field. (For additional information on the official minor, consult the Graduate Degree Programs Bulletin.) Areas of study include academic disciplines related to art education such as philosophy, education, women’s studies, psychology, anthropology, art history, museum studies, and studio inquiry. Students should organize their course work, as much as possible, around an identifiable unifying research area or a similarly specific, well-defined problem involving art education and one or more other disciplines.
Residency Requirement
The Graduate School requires that all Ph.D. candidates must complete two continuous semesters of residency during their doctoral program. There is no required minimum of credits or semesters of study, but over a specific twelve-month period during the interval between admission to candidacy and completion of the Ph.D. program, the candidate must spend at least two semesters (which may include the semester in which the candidacy examination is taken) as a registered full-time student.
English Language Competency Examination
Prior to the Candidacy Examination, all candidates for doctoral degrees are required to demonstrate high-level competence in the use of the English language, including reading, writing, and speaking, as part of the requirement for the doctoral program. Competency must be formally attested to by the student’s committee before the comprehensive examination is held. (See evaluation form.)
Candidacy Examination
The purpose of the candidacy exam is to determine whether the student should continue to work toward the Ph.D. The exam must be taken early in the Ph.D. program (no later than the second semester of doctoral study), so that this decision can be made before either the department or the student has made an extensive commitment. The exam is based in part on: a Statement of Research Goals; a Plan of Study; and a selection of papers written while in the graduate program. This packet of information is prepared prior to the examination. The candidacy examination itself will be an oral examination addressing the scope and quality of the materials presented and the proposed research questions.During the candidacy examination there is a review of (1) the student's professional résumé; (2) a statement regarding the general direction of the student's research interests and possible areas of thesis inquiry; (3) completed graduate courses; (4) proposed course of study for subsequent semesters; (5) selected graduate papers written by the student; (6) slides or original work if studio inquiry is part of the student's program of study.
The Ph.D. Comprehensive Examination
After the permanent committee has been appointed and the doctoral candidate has completed from three to six semesters of course work, he or she takes a comprehensive examination of general knowledge in art education and a related field, and specific knowledge relating to the special topic into which the candidate wishes to inquire. The candidate proposes a time during which the exam might be taken, and if all committee members agree that the candidate is ready, the examination is administered. The examination has two parts. First the candidate writes responses to questions submitted by each member of his or her committee. Responses to the questions are returned to the Art Education Office so that the staff assistant can make copies and distribute them to each member of the candidate's committee. The second part of the examination consists of a two-hour oral examination relating to the written responses to the questions as well as to any other questions that the committee members deem appropriate. The candidate is responsible for arranging his or her oral comprehensive exam after consultation with his or her committee chair. The oral comprehensive examination must be scheduled at least three weeks in advance through the Graduate School.
The Proposal
Following the successful completion of the oral comprehensive examination, doctoral candidates submit a written proposal for the dissertation inquiry that they plan to undertake. The proposal is developed in consultation with the chair of the committee and, after approval by the committee chair, is circulated to the members of the committee. An oral defense of the proposal must be scheduled by the student. This meeting must allow committee members a minimum of two weeks to read the proposal.
The Dissertation
The dissertation, required of all doctoral candidates, represents an original contribution to knowledge, either an original interpretation, or the presentation of new material. The Graduate School establishes specifications for the format of the dissertation (see Thesis Guide). An oral defense of the completed dissertation will cover the dissertation, the dissertation field, any subjects raised by the dissertation, and the literature in the dissertation field.
Beginning in Fall 2006, all doctoral candidates will be required to submit the final dissertation as an eTD. Detailed information about the eTD initiative and requirements can be found on line at www.etd.psu.edu and in the Thesis Guide at www.gradsch.psu.edu/current/thesis.html.
See further information on procedures and in a guide for the Ph.D. in art education.