Online Doctorate of Education in Adult and Continuing Education (PhD)

Want to turn your passion for lifelong learning into a career? The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, offers an online PhD in Education, Adult and Continuing Education Concentration.

This program, which combines educational psychology, research, and development experiences, will prepare you for a fulfilling career as an educator, researcher, scholar, or any other practitioner who works with adult learners.

Program Goals, Features, and Outcomes

General Goals

The Adult and Continuing Education program is designed to help participants:
• Better understand adult and continuing education in terms of its theoretical and conceptual underpinnings as well as its operation in practical situations.
• Be further prepared for the increasingly changing demands of professional life and personal enrichment.
• Enhance knowledge and skills in assisting adult learners with global visions.
• Broaden ideas and competency to live and work within a knowledge society.
• Learn skills in order to make contributions to the areas of adult and continuing education as well as educational leadership and policy studies through presentations and publication of original research.

Key Features

• Inquiry and Reflection: These are at the heart of the Adult and Continuing Education program. A learning community forms when students engage with each other and with faculty in scholarly activities that contribute to the body of knowledge about adult learning and one’s own professional practice.
• Student Experience, Interests and Talents: These are considered in the application process and woven throughout the Adult and Continuing Education program of study. Many students in the program are employed or engaged with adult learners in a wide variety of contexts and/or settings. Their professional experiences contribute to a deeper understanding of the link between theory and practice.
• Faculty and Peer Support: Advanced students are a valuable resource for newer students. Faculty and students often collaborate on projects and research; this work frequently leads to presentations at national and international conferences and publications in professional journals.
• Flexibility: Students have the option to participate in the Adult and Continuing Education program on a full-time or part-time basis. Either way, the program flexibility meets diverse needs of doctoral students. Courses are offered completely online in an asynchronous format to serve a wide variety of student needs.

Learning Outcomes

• Academic Knowledge: Students will demonstrate a deep understanding of educational leadership and policy studies and related fields and a broad understanding of various methods of inquiry in educational leadership and policy studies. In addition, they will demonstrate competence in several methods of inquiry (qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods) and the ability to successfully guide their own scholarship.
• Practical Competence: Students will demonstrate an ability to work effectively with adult learners in various settings. They will be able to plan, implement, administer, and evaluate programs for adult learners.
• Reflective Inquiry: Students will demonstrate the ability to engage in critical thinking and reflection, both in terms of scholarship and practice.
• Democratic Commitment: Students will demonstrate in their scholarship and practice a commitment to diversity and an understanding of the complex process of democracy and a commitment to pursue this process with a focus on access to quality education for all learners in their own professional work.
• Professional Engagement: Students will demonstrate deep intellectual engagement with education, particularly the field of adult education as an area of scholarly inquiry. In doing so, students will belong to and participate in national/international scholarly associations and make evident benefits and contributions that result from these memberships.