Fielding Graduate University

New student orientation to the HOD doctoral program is an in-person session between incoming classes and doctoral program faculty. At the orientation, the faculty works with you to: assess your academic readiness; evaluate your research, personal skills and learning resources; facilitate your understanding of Fielding's learning model and delivery method, set your academic and professional goals; and develop your support group of faculty and peers. While at orientation, students begin work on their Learning Plan, a blueprint which organizes the student's graduate studies in relation to Fielding's requirements and to the student's academic background, personal experience, and interests. The completed Learning Plan should be submitted for approval within 30 days after the conclusion of the in-person orientation event.

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This area explores theories and research in normal development and the evolution of consciousness across the life span, including prenatal development, birth, infancy, early childhood, middle and late childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, maturity, old age, and death.

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This study area is designed to aid the student in selecting a methodological and theoretical framework for clarifying and ordering the other knowledge areas. It should also help in developing a language for communicating concepts and issues across disciplinary boundaries. It represents and introduction to the broad theoretical traditions that shape the human and social sciences, and to the process of generating models for understanding, explaining, and acting, with emphasis on major ways of conceptualizing human, social, and organizational systems.

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Students explore conceptual frameworks for organizational dynamics based on historical perspective and empirical findings, theories and paradigms, problem-solving, and personal engagement.

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After students have completed at least three of the required Knowledge Area courses, they schedule a review with their faculty mentor and one other faculty member to discuss their academic progress. Assessor feedback, the Learning Plan, and the next phase of study are covered in this review.

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Each course represents one of three required comprehensive assessment essays. In the comprehensive essays, the student is expected to demonstrate the ability to integrate work done in the previous course areas. Students are expected to compare and synthesize theories, critique them, and provide examples of current research being done in the particular area.

Faculty/Instructor(s): 

Each course represents one of three required comprehensive assessment essays. In the comprehensive essays, the student is expected to demonstrate the ability to integrate work done in the previous course areas. Students are expected to compare and synthesize theories, critique them, and provide examples of current research being done in the particular area.

Faculty/Instructor(s): 

Each course represents one of three required comprehensive assessment essays. In the comprehensive essays, the student is expected to demonstrate the ability to integrate work done in the previous course areas. Students are expected to compare and synthesize theories, critique them, and provide examples of current research being done in the particular area.

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Signifies completion of the public defense of the dissertation.

Pre-requisites: Dissertation Proposal Approval

Completion of this course signifies the student has a full dissertation committee and is working on their dissertation proposal.

Completion of this course signifies the full dissertation committee has reviewed the final draft of the dissertation and has indicated it is ready to be proofread and prepared for binding.

Pre-requisites: Dissertation Proposal Approval

Develops advanced competencies in practice-based interventions and practice modalities.

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Introduces you to different ways of conducting inquiry and engaging in practice, along with their respective underlying assumptions about the nature of knowledge, practice and action. It broadly distinguishes among different empirical-analytical and interpretive approaches to inquiry, as well as different traditions of practice. You will consider the level at which practice is directed (for example, personal, interpersonal, family, group, organizational, community, societal, global) as well as the relationship between practitioner and client (ranging from expert to facilitator). In HOD754A, you will develop and demonstrate competence in evaluating exemplars of many of these different approaches. HOD754A will introduce the importance of research ethics, as well as alternative traditions of ethics.

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You will develop and demonstrate your understanding of the ways in which different research methods and designs are linked to the different empirical-analytical and interpretive approaches introduced in HOD754A. You will demonstrate your understanding of how action-oriented approaches can be used in both empirical and interpretive research. You will work with your assessor to design an assessment that demonstrates your understanding of these multiple methods, and your competencies in their design. HOD754B will include one or more detailed research proposals that demonstrate your ability in research methods and designs. You will consider the issues of accountability in social research and the formal requirements of Fielding's Institutional Review Board (IRB) for all of your research proposals. While you will not carry out your proposal, it should demonstrate your understanding of these different methods.

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The pilot study is designed as a test of the data collection and analysis methods of the dissertation study. The purpose is to ?try out? the data-collection process and procedures, and the preliminary analysis in advance of full dissertation data collection. This ?trying out? includes technical as well as conceptual and organizational matters. By testing things out, you can anticipate and overcome various pitfalls of data collection and analysis related to whatever research methodologies and methods are being used in your inquiry. Whether one is using a survey questionnaire, gathering data through interviewing, examining documentary evidence in published texts, or applying any other data collection method, it is essential to do a limited test in advance.

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This area is defined by individual students. It can be used to acquire new knowledge or to deepen existing knowledge in a specific area in which students expect to build or advance professional careers.

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In this area, students examine major theorists and schools of thought from a social and interactional perspective. Particular attention is given to individual development and the study of selected theories oriented toward personal change and lifespan development. Also of interest are the more traditional perspectives seen in the psychoanalytic, neoanalytic, behavioral, and humanistic theories in the field.

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This area includes knowledge about social structures and behavior within the group, the family, and the organization. Factors associated with group dynamics and small group theory, attribution theory, attitude development, social influence, helping behavior, feminist and minority issues, negotiation and problem solving, power and leadership, and organizational dynamics are explored from a social-psychological perspective. This area also involves knowledge of the socialization process, role behavior, social interaction, social movements, and collective behavior.

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Various theoretical approaches to viewing organizations are studied. These include the open systems model, principals of organizational behavior, community planning, constituency development, organizational change concepts, and the renewal process.

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This area surveys the field of human behavior with emphasis on needs, expectations, learning, motivation, and communication. The focus is upon common human experience in the cognitive and affective realms, and on the nature of factors that influence physical, sexual, social, esthetic, and moral actions and interactions. Adult learning theory is of major importance to this area.

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This area includes a review and comparison of historical and contemporary literature on management and leadership. In addition to contemporary theories, many of the concepts found in the practice of organization development are dealt with in this course.

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This area reflects the growing importance of the ecological paradigm in the social sciences and in our culture. This paradigm situates individuals, organizations, and whole societies in their ecological and natural context and looks at the ecological constraints upon and implications of human activity. Students are encouraged to study both global and local dimensions of human and social problems ranging from overpopulation and environmental destruction to issues in community and work environments.

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This area focuses on the nature and functioning of information systems and technology, and on the increasing "information" of society. It assumes that human and organization development will increasingly intersect with computerized information systems and that competence in understanding and designing such systems as well as in responding to their human, organizational, and social implications is a growing part of the role of HOD professional. Both organizational and technical aspects of information systems are included in this area.

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Many midcareer professionals want and need a disciplined understanding of contemporary public life, collective decision- making, and social and public action. Through this knowledge area, students become familiar with the chief themes in current political debate, learn how public policy is made and how to influence that process, and gain an understanding of the impact of laws, government actions, and other relevant issues on their professions and organizations. Students are also encouraged to examine their own political convictions and to envision an expanded public role.

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Human and organization development occur within the context of social changes that in previous times were often slow, and that are usually rapid today. In this area students examine theories of social change, and investigate historic and contemporary changes. The purpose is to understand their meaning, to understand how and why such changes occur - not with the aim of adjusting to them, but rather of intervening proactively in the process.

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Major components of various human services provided in the community for family, schools, marriage, work institutions, and spiritual development are surveyed in this study area. The delivery of human services as carried out through these institutions is discussed, and various systems needed to provide supportive and facilitating functions are reviewed. A central objective of the study area is to provide knowledge and skills around the design, creation, and management of such requisite systems.

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The study of diversity involves understanding and respecting differences in race, ethnicity, culture, class, gender, sexual orientation, etc.; skill in interacting with such varying groups is a key dimension of human and organization development. This knowledge area also explores structural inequality, since honoring differences is not the same as understanding how inequality is produced in society, built into the structure and functioning of our social institutions.

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As organizations become increasingly international in scope, individuals find their work projects, their clientele, and their career paths pushed in a global direction: human resources personnel deal with multicultural and international labor forces; organizations and consultants have clients across the globe; activists deal with cultural/national oppression; specialists assist in poor rural areas around the globe; information networks carry data across borders; and ecologists attempt to preserve ecosystems damaged by internationally generated pollution. These are a few examples of possible domains to explore in this new knowledge area.

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Provides a flexible opportunity for students to complete 1 to 10 units of academic credit in specialized studies. Students in all phases of their doctoral studies can assess in HOD-721, to build doctoral competencies, deepen scholarly knowledge, extend the breadth of their scholar-practitioner expertise, and explore diverse epistemologies, ways of knowing, and world views. Students are limited to 20 units of HOD-721. HOD-721 offers opportunities for both structured and individualized studies. Students contract individually with faculty for HOD-721. The assessment contract needs to specify the associated credit as well as the detailed expectations for the assessment. Allocation of credit is determined by the assessor, following the HOD-721 designation of credit guidelines.

This course represents student engagement in the dissertation process from concept to the final dissertation as planned with and evaluated by the chairperson.

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All the advanced research modules numbered 754XX are designed to enable students to learn a particular research method in depth. HOD 754A and HOD 754B are pre-requisites at any advanced 754XX; in general, 754XX modules will be taken before HOD 754D. This module provides an action research model known as action inquiry that engages 1st (subjective), 2nd (inter-subjective) and 3rd person frameworks in helping the researcher look at oneself in relation to the research and its impact on the participants and the system of study.

Pre-requisites: HOD-754A, HOD-754B.

Faculty/Instructor(s): 

All the advanced research modules numbered 754XX are designed to enable students to learn a particular research method in depth. HOD 754A and HOD 754B are pre-requisites at any advanced 754XX; in general, 754XX modules will be taken before HOD 754D. This module focuses on using the theory of the coordinated management of meaning ("CMM") in research. Students learn to frame research projects within the conceptualizations provided by the theory, to collect and analyze data based on those concepts, and to interpret, evaluate and act on the basis of the findings. The module moves from a third-person position in which students read and critique other people's research, through a supervised group project, to a first-person position in which students design and conduct their own small research project.

Pre-requisites: HOD-754A, HOD-754B.

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All the advanced research modules numbered 754XX are designed to enable students to learn a particular research method in depth. HOD 754A and HOD 754B are pre-requisites at any advanced 754XX; in general, 754XX modules will be taken before HOD 754D. The core ideas of critical social science are that researchers and scholars should not study the world in the mode of scientific detachment and ethical and political neutrality but rather in the mode of value-driven social and political engagement to produce a more rational, just, and humane society. This module will be an in-depth examination of the application of this approach to scholarship, with special orientation toward those considering developing concept papers and dissertation proposals in this area.

Pre-requisites: HOD-754A, HOD-754B

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All the advanced research modules numbered 754XX are designed to enable students to learn a particular research method in depth. HOD 754A and HOD 754B are pre-requisites at any advanced 754XX; in general, 754XX modules will be taken before HOD 754D. This module helps build an understanding of the epistemological and ontological issues involved in contemporary ethnography. Students will experience ethnography as a methodology, as a way of seeing, and as a way of engaging with social reality. Students will understand the skills that will need to be developed in order to successfully complete ethnography. Students will know if ethnography suits their intellectual projects and personal styles of engagement.

Pre-requisites: HOD-754A, and HOD-754B

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All the advanced research modules numbered 754XX are designed to enable students to learn a particular research method in depth. HOD 754A and HOD 754B are pre-requisites at any advanced 754XX; in general, 754XX modules will be taken before HOD 754D. This module will examine Narrative Inquiry's (NI) epistemology, assumptions and aims. Informed by feminism and critical theory, NI counteracts a dominant paradigm that privileges only a few voices. Through narrative life voices of those marginalized emerge. Narratives provide coherence to human experience and have a central role to communication to others. Storytelling is a powerful tool to collect data and gather information. Narrative research studies the whole person in context and examines whole lives, and storytelling taps unconscious emotional material and memories that contain salient content about an event (Nelson, 2008, 2). Narrative inquiry, as a methodology, does not superimpose the majority paradigm on people's stories. Students review narrative research, learn how to develop research questions, criteria for selecting participants, and methods for collecting and analyzing stories. They also complete a mini narrative research project, conducting a short literature review, methodology protocol, collecting interviews and analyzing them. Related methodologies such as organic and co-inquiry will be reviewed. Skill development, meaning-making, and stand-point in knowledge creation and development will be emphasized. Learning objectives: a) Explain epistemology of narrative research and compare and contrast to other qualitative traditions (such as ethnography or phenomenology) and quantitative approaches. b) Define voice and its importance in critical theory. c) Describe the range of narrative research from black feminist to life histories and the advantages of each focus. d) Read and discuss major narrative researchers including bell hooks, Patricial Hill Collins, Amia Lieblich, Mary Belenky and others. e) Critically analyze narrative research studies for epistemology, data collection methods and analysis. f) Experience hearing, collecting and giving narratives. g) Review and practice Libelich's holistic content and categorical content analysis methods, as well as Moustakas' composite story creation. h) Explore indigenous and alternative perspectives in storytelling. i) Define validity and reflexivity in narrative inquiry. j) Find and analyze at least five narrative research articles about a topic of interest. k) Do a web search for playful and intuitive forms of on-line storytelling and present during a webex. l) Choose a related research methodology such as co-inquiry, organic inquiry or autoethnography and report on definition and methods through the analysis of one research article. m) Working with a group, create a mini narrative research study including research question, participant selection criteria, narrative protocol, data collection and analysis. n) Explore the importance of standpoint epistemology in utilizing narrative methodology. Learning activities (reqts to earn the credits): a) Pre assignment on study questions on readings; b) Participate in two morning workshop including discussion and creating narratives and stories; c) Write up of critical analysis of five narrative research articles; d) Present innovative on line narratives during a WEBEX; d) Post assignment on study questions on readings; e) Write up of group mini narrative research project including protocol, collect and conduct a content analysis to determine themes or a composite story.

Pre-requisites: HOD-754A, HOD-754B

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All the advanced research modules numbered 754XX are designed to enable students to learn a particular research method in depth. HOD 754A and HOD 754B are pre-requisites at any advanced 754XX; in general, 754XX modules will be taken before HOD 754D. Phenomenographic inquiry seeks to discover the variation in the qualitatively different ways that people make meaning and discern aspects of a phenomenon. This variation is captured, analyzed, and organized into graphical representations that support learning and evidence-based action in organizations, health care, education, social change, technology, and other initiatives. This module integrates variation theory and critical reading of phenomenographic research literature with hands-on learning in epistemology, reflexive methodologies, collaborative analysis, graphical design, and project evaluation.

Pre-requisites: HOD-754A, HOD-754B

Faculty/Instructor(s): 

All the advanced research modules numbered 754XX are designed to enable students to learn a particular research method in depth. HOD 754A and HOD 754B are pre-requisites at any advanced 754XX; in general, 754XX modules will be taken before HOD 754D. This module introduces the domains of phenomenology and hermeneutics through experientially grounded activities that display the foundations and orientation of interpretive ways of knowing. Through understanding the epistemological promise of interpretive phenomenology, we aim to reveal the research potentialities and personal challenges of working within this culture of inquiry. By drawing upon insights from applied studies in the human, social, organizational and educational sciences, we hope to show the efficacy of approaching any phenomenon from a phenomenological perspective.

Pre-requisites: HOD-754A, HOD-754B.

Faculty/Instructor(s): 

All the advanced research modules numbered 754XX are designed to enable students to learn a particular research method in depth. HOD 754A and HOD 754B are pre-requisites at any advanced 754XX; in general, 754XX modules will be taken before HOD 754D. This module is designed to provide skill development for students using QDA at the dissertation level. It requires intensive training using conventional and innovative qualitative techniques as well as training in related software tools.

Pre-requisites: HOD-754A, HOD-754B.

Faculty/Instructor(s): 

All the advanced research modules numbered 754XX are designed to enable students to learn a particular research method in depth. HOD 754A and HOD 754B are pre-requisites at any advanced 754XX; in general, 754XX modules will be taken before HOD 754D. This module includes an overview of quantitative research techniques, emphasizing experimental, quasi-experimental, descriptive, analytical and mix-methods designs. The concepts of sampling, normal distributions, and tests of significance will be dealt with in depth and will be introduced in November. Special emphasis will be placed on connecting research designs and statistical tests appropriate for each design. Included in the course is an overview of the planning, executing, and writing up of quantitative research studies. Students will also develop an ability to critically evaluate the generalizability of research studies for decision-making.

Pre-requisites: HOD-754A, HOD-754B

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Students may earn up to 4 credits of training. Hours, once approved, are awarded as 40 clock hours of training earn 1 unit of credit. This course is entirely optional and does not count towards any graduation requirements.

Pre-requisites: HOD-700

Students may earn up to 10 credits of internship. Hours, once approved, are awarded as 40 clock hours of internship equals 1 units of credit. This course is entirely optional and does not count towards any graduation requirements.

Pre-requisites: HOD-700