As a doctoral student at HGSE, you’ll become part of an exceptional community of scholars and education leaders.
The doctoral experience at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is truly remarkable. The two interdisciplinary doctoral programs — the research-based Doctor of Philosophy in Education (Ph.D.) and the practicebased Doctor of Education Leadership (Ed.L.D.) — propel our students into careers that directly shape and inform education practice and policy.
At HGSE, you will have supportive classmates who become trusted colleagues and work with outstanding faculty who become invaluable mentors. You will join a collaborative community of people who are diverse in background, philosophy, and focus, but united in tackling the most pressing challenges in the field — from early childhood through higher education — with passion and purpose. We hope you will join us.
. BRIDGET TERRY LONG Dean Saris Professor of Education and Economics Harvard Graduate School of Education
A doctoral degree from HGSE enables you to change the world through education — whether you seek to become a system-level leader or a transformative researcher who generates knowledge to drive policy and practice. We offer two distinct programs — a Doctor of Education Leadership (Ed.L.D.) and a Doctor of Philosophy in Education (Ph.D.) — so you can select the program that best fits your professional aspirations.
Our next doctoral enrollment cycle is for fall 2024. Learn more at gse.harvard.edu/doctorate.
From leadership positions that cultivate real-world success to education research that generates policy reform, HGSE’s doctoral programs allow you to make a lasting impact on the field.
Drawing on the interdisciplinary strength of Harvard University, our degree offerings equip you with firsthand knowledge of learning and development, public policy, and organizational management, as well as a broad array of academic disciplines — empowering you to address today’s complex education challenges.
Through groundbreaking research and advancements in education practice, HGSE faculty and alumni continue to look for ways to generate better outcomes for all students.
Our faculty members have worked across the country and around the globe to create initiatives and research studies that make a deep impact on school programs, education policy, and classroom performance.
HGSE alumni bring this same sense of dedication and innovation to their post-graduation endeavors, as they advance the field through leadership positions at nonprofit organizations, school systems, and education departments, as well as through careers as researchers, academics, and policymakers.
As a student in one of our two doctoral programs, you’ll work with faculty to explore the connections between research, policy, and practice — seeing firsthand how they lead to development of solutions to address the challenges faced by our education system.
You’ll also become part of HGSE’s dynamic and influential intellectual community — lending your voice and vision to our century-long tradition of innovation. HGSE was the first school to offer a doctorate in education, the first to create a doctorate in education leadership, and the first Harvard professional school to admit women.
• Three-year, full-time, practice-based degree
• Designed to nurture transformative, systemlevel leaders in the following sectors: preK–12 public education, state and federal policy, nonprofit, social entrepreneurship, and philanthropy and foundations
• Leveraging faculty from HGSE, Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, and the Harvard Kennedy School
• Five- to seven-year, full-time, research-based degree
• Designed to train cutting-edge scholars and researchers who generate knowledge to drive policy and practice
• Offered jointly with the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, with cross-Harvard opportunities in research and mentorship
Our Ed.L.D. Program is designed to create transformative system-level leaders who have the capacity to lead complex organizations, navigate political environments, and create systemic change in the field of education. The Ed.L.D. offers you a deep understanding of teaching and learning and prepares you to work across the sector to improve outcomes in American preK–12 education.
Our highly integrated core curriculum focuses on the following four areas:
• Learning and Teaching
• Leadership and Organizational Change
• Politics and Policy
• Personal Mastery
YEAR
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In addition to a second-year seminar that will deepen your understanding of the core curriculum, you will have an opportunity to create a tailored learning experience with elective courses drawn from any of Harvard’s professional schools, which in addition to HGSE include:
• Harvard Business School
• Harvard Kennedy School
• Harvard Law School
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During your third year, you will take part in a 10-month paid residency at one of our partner organizations — an experience that is unique among doctoral programs. There, you will work on a high-priority strategic project before developing a capstone — a reflective, analytical account of your project contributions and leadership. Our program prepares graduates to work in five distinct sectors, and we organize our residency sites around these areas. Some recent partner organizations include:
• PreK–12: New York City Department of Education, Los Angeles Unified School District, Chicago Public Schools, Boston Public Schools, Ferguson-Florissant School District
• Nonprofits: Big Picture Learning, The Leadership Academy, Purpose Built Communities
• Foundations/Philanthropy: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, New Profit
• Policy: The Education Trust, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Texas Education Agency
• Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation: IDEO, The Teachers Guild, The Learning Accelerator
Our Ph.D. Program trains cutting-edge scholars and researchers who work across disciplines, generate knowledge, and translate discoveries into transformative policy and practice. The program provides you with full access to the extraordinary resources of Harvard University and prepares you for a high-impact career as a faculty member, researcher, policymaker, or educational leader.
As a Ph.D. student, you’ll complete two years of coursework and design original research in close consultation with your HGSE faculty adviser and dissertation committee. Additional curriculum components include a Ph.D. proseminar, doctoral colloquia, apprenticeships and fellowships, written and oral comprehensive exams, and a dissertation defense.
Concentrations + Coursework + Research
Within the Ph.D. Program, you will align with one of three primary concentrations, which will act as a lens as you explore your research topic.
CULTURE, INSTITUTIONS, AND SOCIETY (CIS)
In CIS, you’ll study how these structures and contexts shape educational processes and outcomes across the lifespan.
• Sample elective courses
Institutional Change in School Organizations, Systems, and Sectors
Education in Armed Conflict
EDUCATION POLICY AND PROGRAM EVALUATION (EPPE)
The EPPE concentration enables you to research the design, implementation, and evaluation of education policy in the United States and internationally at the local level and large-scale, using incisive research methods.
• Sample elective courses
Politics and Education Policy in the United States
— Methods of Educational Measurement
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, LEARNING AND TEACHING (HDLT)
As you explore HDLT, you’ll examine how biological, cognitive, and social processes influence learning and development.
• Sample elective courses
— Applying Cognitive Science to Learning and Teaching
Topics in Educational Psychology
Jarvis Givens is an expert in African American history, the history of education, and theories of race and power in education. He is the author of Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching and School Clothes: A Collective Memoir of Black Student Witness. He is also the co-founder of the Black Teacher Archive, a digital humanities project focused on preserving the intellectual and political history of African American educators.
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot Professor of EducationAdriana Umaña-Taylor’s work applies developmental science to reduce ethnoracial disparities in psychological and academic outcomes among adolescents. She founded the Identity Project, a school-based intervention curriculum that equips teens with strategies to explore their ethnicracial identity, learn about their peers’ backgrounds, and gain clarity and confidence regarding their overall sense of self — all with an emphasis on individual agency.
Following a career as a teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, and deputy director for K–12 education at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Irvin Scott joined the HGSE faculty, where his focus has been on educational leadership. His professional interests include exploring the role of faith communities in education, improving equity in schools, and working with schools and districts on educational challenges.
Kathleen McCartney Professor of Education Leadership
Monica Higgins, who leads HGSE’s Scaling for Impact initiative, helps current and future school and district leaders learn the skills of collaboration and entrepreneurial thinking necessary for organizational change. She helped to pioneer the case study method in education, believing that change comes through sharing stories of success, collaboration, and risk-taking from leaders in every sector.
As a doctoral student at HGSE, you’ll gain critical insights and perspective through classroom discussions, small-group sessions, and research projects. Yet we also recognize the importance of learning that occurs outside of lecture halls — learning that takes place within your cohort, via alumni networks, and through cocurricular experiences on the broader Harvard University campus and in the Boston/Cambridge community.
Peer-to-peer learning plays a significant role at HGSE, and you will have the opportunity to engage with members of your cohort during in-class discussion opportunities and through co-curricular experiences.
Our global alumni base of 30,000+ professionals will serve you throughout your career by providing connections, collaborations, and mentoring opportunities.
Learning continues far beyond your in-class academic experience, and HGSE offers an array of programming, including:
Events with innovative leaders, collaborative learning experiences, and professional development opportunities
Fellowship programs, advisory committees, and funding opportunities
As an HGSE student, you’ll also experience a range of benefits, resources, and opportunities available across the overall Harvard University campus, including cross-registration options with other graduate schools and open access to the world’s largest library system.
Events that highlight and promote innovative teaching and learning strategies
During your graduate study, you can experience all that the Boston/ Cambridge area has to offer — from history to innovation to culture. You’ll find renowned institutions, championship sports teams, performances and lectures, bookstores, restaurants, and more.
Our outstanding faculty members represent a key strength of our Ed.L.D. and Ph.D. programs. These world-renowned scholars and education leaders will play a critical role in your career development — as research colleagues, system-level leaders, mentors, and career advisers.
As you pursue your Ph.D., members of your faculty committee will help ensure that your dissertation not only makes a valuable contribution to the field but also meets the career criteria necessary to secure a position in academia or in the nonprofit or private sectors. Upon completion of your Ed.L.D., HGSE’s Career Services Office can provide job-search assistance as you prepare to make a deeper impact as a policymaker, school system leader, or nonprofit administrator.
Whether you seek a research- or practice-based career, our HGSE doctoral programs are designed to position you for success and ensure you reach your career objectives. Sample positions secured by alumni from both programs include:
ED.L.D. GRADUATES:
• Co-executive director, Big Picture Learning, Providence, Rhode Island
• CEO, The Leadership Academy, New York
• Superintendent, Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, California
• Senior partner, NewSchools Venture Fund
• Senior adviser, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, U.S. Department of Education
• Superintendent, Central Falls School District, Rhode Island
PH.D. GRADUATES:
• Founding faculty, London Interdisciplinary School
• Assistant professor of education policy and inequality, Vanderbilt University
• Assistant professor of public policy and administration, California State University, Sacramento
• Research scientist, Amazon
• Senior analyst, Abt Associates
• Research associate, MDRC
• Postdoctoral fellow, UCLA
Cruz, a teacher for over 23 years and co-founder of Homies Empowerment, a grassroots organization in east Oakland, California, that serves gang impacted/involved youth, has spent most of his career fighting for justice. “When I left HGSE, I started thinking, how do we create a different kind of education, a different kind of school?” His dream is to empower students who too often have been written off by society.
When looking back at her time at HGSE, Amy Loyd says “there’s no doubt that the Ed.L.D. [Program] made me the leader I am today.” She was recently confirmed as the assistant secretary for Career, Technical, and Adult Education in the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to this role she served as the vice president at Jobs for the Future, where she led the organization’s programs in college and career pathways.
Clint Smith’s work with adults sentenced to life in prison embodies his deeply held belief that “education is a human right deserved by all.” Through his research and dissertation on the purpose of prison education, he also explores larger issues around racism and inequality. In addition to The Atlantic, he is the author of three books, including the best-selling How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America.
With an interest in diversifying the teacher pipeline, Olivia Chi has researched the effect of race- and gender-matching between teachers and administrators during classroom observations. Her recent research includes an examination of how the pandemic shaped the composition of the teacher workforce in Massachusetts.
HGSE brings together people who are committed to making a transformative impact through education — people who demonstrate leadership, dedication, curiosity, a sense of mission, and an entrepreneurial spirit.
Step One
Introduce yourself by filling out an online form at hgse.me/hgse-intro
Step Two
Explore and connect with us via upcoming events and digital recordings at hgse.me/admissions_events
Step Three
Apply online beginning August 2023
Ed.L.D.: Begin your application to HGSE at hgse.me/application
Ph.D.: Submit your application through the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at gsas.harvard.edu/apply
Deadline
Submit your online application and materials by
Ph.D.: December 1, 2023
Ed.L.D.: December 15, 2023
Both of HGSE’s doctoral programs provide full tuition funding.
All Ed.L.D. students receive:
• A full-tuition package for three years, including student health fee funding
• Stipend for years one and two
• A paid residency with a partner organization in the third year
All Ph.D. students receive:
• Tuition and fees, paid in full for years 1 through 5 plus the dissertation completion year
• Living stipend during years 1 and 2
• Paid teaching fellowships and/or research assistantships during years 3 and 4
• Summer research funding after each of the first four years
• Living stipend during the dissertation completion year
For more information, visit gse.harvard.edu/doctorate.
As you consider the degree that will best serve you professionally, you also may want to explore our master’s (Ed.M.) programs, which will help you establish a long-term, impactful career in education. The following programs will prepare you to create transformative learning at every level and in every role.
• Education Leadership, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship
• Education Policy and Analysis
• Human Development and Education
• Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology
• Teaching and Teacher Leadership
• Education Leadership (Online)
Learn more at hgse.me/masters.
The steps below will help you learn more about our doctoral programs, application process, and funding, as well as prepare you for fall 2024 enrollment.