Prepares candidates to be leaders, policymakers, policy advisors and analysts, faculty members, and researchers. Graduates will shape, direct, implement and evaluate early childhood services, infrastructure, and policy and contribute to the scholarly knowledge that undergirds the discipline.
Given its unprecedented growth over the past five decades, the early childhood field has focused most of its efforts on program expansion and on the provision of high-quality services for young children. Although there is increasing attention to enhancing equity, most work in the field concentrates on practice improvement. Typically, this is pedagogical in nature, either for children or by the workforce. CU Denver's Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) with a concentration in Early Childhood Policy tilts this focus. The program suggests that without specialized attention to policy, it is difficult for the field to achieve quality, equity, and scale. The concentration holds institutional and system reform as its units of change.
The PhD in Education and Human Development links an intensive research-based course of study with a content area specialization to prepare candidates to assume faculty positions in institutions of higher education or research-based organizations. Successful applicants are paired with a faculty mentor who supports the student to engage in research, development, service, and other professional activities.
The goal of this concentration is to prepare candidates to be leaders, policymakers, policy advisors and analysts, faculty members, and researchers who successfully shape, direct, implement, and evaluate early childhood services, infrastructure, and policy and contribute to the scholarly knowledge that undergirds the discipline. Graduates enter a growing and dynamic field with burgeoning research about the critical years in children's brain development, learning, and health. This concentration holds institutional and system reform as its unit of change and equity in opportunity and outcomes as the purpose for change.
