Doctor of Education Leadership (Ed.L.D.)
Ed.L.D. Curriculum
Year One Integrated Curriculum and
Year Two Core Seminar
To transform education, leaders need a combination of skills and knowledge, courage and humility, and action and reflection. Leaders need to be able to operate successfully in the political environment and manage an organization while focusing on the core work of learning and teaching. The innovative Ed.L.D. curriculum — custom-designed for this program and purpose by faculty from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Kennedy School — will prepare students to be effective system-level leaders.
Core Curriculum
Learning and Teaching
Leaders of learning need a robust understanding of learning, development, teaching, and schools as settings for these activities. In this curriculum strand, students will investigate key lines of inquiry:
- How does learning work?
- How are learners different?
- What's worth learning?
- What kind of knowing matters?
- How is content best taught?
- How do we know content is being learned?
- How do we improve learning at scale?
Students will develop a critical and creative stance toward these fundamental questions, as well as skill in finding and cultivating the expertise needed to engage in the continuous improvement of instructional practice.
Politics and Policy
In order to successfully bring about a transformation of the education sector, students must have not only a sense of how it functions, but also a sense of the modes by which it can be reshaped in the future. Thus, the focus of this domain is on the history, structure, policies, politics, and levers for change in the sector. Students will explore the question of why it has been so difficult to improve performance through policy, and learn how successful political actors are able to mobilize to effect change. In addition, students will meet and hear from some of the major players who are working to create sectoral-level change.
Leadership and Management
We seek not only to foster transformational changes in the education of students in the United States, but also to offer a transformational experience through the Ed.L.D. Program. In this curriculum strand, students will develop their abilities as thoughtful and entrepreneurial leaders, as well as their understanding of organizations, so they can create genuine learning organizations that perform at high levels. This core domain encompasses four content areas: strategy, entrepreneurial leadership, managing organizational performance, and leading the learning organization. A variety of experiences in the curriculum, including individualized executive coaching and yearlong learning teams, supports students’ personal leadership development.
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