Doctor of Philosophy in
Education (PhD), School
Safety, Security, and
Emergency Management

A PhD prepares you to make significant contributions to the body of literature within the education field. This course prepares you for understanding what theory is, recognizing theoretical frameworks within existing literature, connecting your research interests to existing theoretical frameworks, and justifying how your research will add to the wealth of current theories in the field.

Your success as a scholarly professional will largely depend upon your communication skills, particularly in your written work. This course supports your development as a scholar who can publish in different types of research-based publications for a variety of audiences. You’ll practice synthesizing multiple sources, formulating arguments, and integrating feedback through iterative drafts of your work. These are key capabilities you’ll need as you submit your research in published manuscripts and presentations.

In this course, you’ll develop effective search and writing strategies to create a scholarly review of literature. The course emphasizes how to: (a) use effective literature search strategies; (b) develop a scholarly synthesis of research literature; (c) organize research literature around identified themes, including a study problem, purpose, and theoretical perspectives; and (d) focus on developing a scholarly exposition that reflects divergent viewpoints and contrasting perspectives. The overarching goal is for you to understand strategies for surveying scholarly literature that avoid bias, focus on educational, practice-based research problems, and address the requirements of a scholarly literature review.

This course introduces you to the research process by exploring its underpinnings, examining its paradigms, and investigating the foundations of qualitative and quantitative methodologies used in educational studies. You’ll identify criteria for the development of quality research studies that are ethical, accurate, comprehensive, cohesive, and aligned. Specific course topics involve the ethics of conducting research; data collection and analysis techniques; and issues of feasibility, trustworthiness, validity, reliability, transferability, and rigor. The goal is to familiarize yourself with the concepts and skills associated with conducting theoretical and applied research.

This course provides the foundational knowledge to become a critical consumer of statistical-based research and a skilled analyst of non-inferential quantitative data. Coursework focuses on understanding multivariate data, non-inferential and inferential statistical concepts, the conventions of quantitative data analysis, and interpretations and critical inferences in statistical results. You’ll use software applications to complete statistical computations and perform quantitative data analysis. The course culminates in a synthesis project to demonstrate your statistical skills and present your results using APA guidelines.

A focus on qualitative research methodology and the designs and methods used to collect and analyze data in educational research. You’ll examine the principles of qualitative research and explore commonly used designs (also referred to as qualitative traditions or genres) with a focus on application and feasibility. Qualitative data collection and analysis methods will be examined for their suitability with regard to the research design selected. Alignment between qualitative designs and research methods, issues of trustworthiness, and the responsibilities of the qualitative researcher will also be explored.

An exploration of quantitative research methodologies and associated designs and methods. You’ll examine paradigmatic perspectives along with the tenets and conventions of quantitative research. Topics for examination include feasibility, validity, reliability, variable operationalization, inferential designs, and analytic software applications used within the quantitative research paradigm. You’ll also look at the components of quantitative research designs that support meaningful studies within the field of education.

An exploration of advanced statistical principles and how to apply them to quantitative research. This course provides an overview of advanced statistical concepts used in empirical research, including inferential analyses. You’ll use SPSS software to perform advanced computations as you build independent, scholarly statistical skills. Coursework will emphasize multivariate data; the use, comprehension, and evaluation of sophisticated statistical concepts; and the proper presentation of statistical results.

This course builds on a foundational understanding of qualitative designs and measurements to focus on analyses of the data. Coursework takes you deeper into the skills and techniques necessary to ensure the appropriate analyses of qualitative data, including integrating relevant frameworks, verifying trustworthiness of the findings, and selecting suitable methods for presenting analyses and findings.

The doctoral comprehensive assessment is your opportunity to demonstrate your preparation for entering the dissertation phase as a PhD candidate. You’ll synthesize discipline-specific content with research designs and analysis methods to create a prospectus for a theoretically-based research study that focuses on furthering knowledge in the field of education. Whereas EdD research focuses on addressing a researchable problem with practical applications, PhD research has a focus on contribution to theory and the broader discipline of education. This course is begun only after all your foundation, specialization, and research courses have been completed, and your prospectus will likely become the foundation of your PhD dissertation. 

Students in this course will be required to complete chapter one of their dissertation proposal, including the following: a review of literature with substantiating evidence of the problem, the research purpose and questions, the intended methodological design and approach, and the significance of the study. A completed, committee-approved chapter one is required to pass the course. If you don’t receive approval to minimum standards, you’ll be able to take up to three supplementary eight-week courses to finalize and gain approval of chapter one.

In this course, you’ll work on completing chapters one to three of your dissertation proposal and receiving committee approval for the dissertation proposal (DP). Chapter two consists of the literature review, while chapter three covers the research methodology and design, including population, sample, measurement instruments, data collection and analysis, limitations, and ethical considerations. Completed, committee-approved chapters two and three are required to pass the course, as is a final approved dissertation proposal. If you don’t receive approval to minimum standards, you’ll be able to take up to three supplementary eight-week courses to finalize and gain approval of these requirements.

In this course, you’ll prepare, submit, and obtain approval of your Institutional Review Board (IRB) application. You’ll also collect data and submit a final study closure form to the IRB. If you’re still collecting data at the end of the 12-week course, you’ll be able to take up to three supplementary eight-week courses to complete data collection and file your IRB study closure form.

In this dissertation course, you’ll work on completing chapters four, five, and your final dissertation manuscript. Specifically, you’ll complete your data analysis, prepare your study results, and present your findings with an oral defense and a completed manuscript. A completed, committee-approved dissertation manuscript and successful oral defense are required to complete the course and graduate. If you don’t receive approval for either or both, you can take up to three supplementary eight-week courses to finalize and gain approval.

SEM-7100 Risk Analysis: Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment

In this course, you’ll learn about risk analysis through the lens of threat and hazard identification and risk assessment. You’ll examine the relationships between assessment, planning, and training, as well as prepare risk-benefit analyses for K-12 safety, security, and emergency management. Further, you’ll evaluate physical risks and review the ways in which diverse settings can impact the realization of threats—all while exploring how diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice relate to evolving threats. Finally, you’ll critique all-hazards emergency plans that consider diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice in K-12 schools across diverse settings.

SEM-7200 Communicating, Collaborating, and Planning for Safety, Security, and Emergency Management

This course explores how communicating, collaborating, and planning of school safety, security, and emergency management come together and operate. You’ll determine ways in which incident command systems can be modified and communicated for use in K-12 schools during crisis incidents. You’ll also examine ways for administrators to collaborate and communicate with community partners and first responders to help prepare for, manage, and recover from crisis events. Critical to this course is explaining the ways in which diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice impact communication throughout a crisis incident. As a final exercise, you’ll construct an incident command system using everything you’ve learned and evaluated during the course.  

SEM-7300 Leadership Paradigms in Safety, Security, and Emergency Management

This course takes a deep dive into the leadership paradigms in school safety, security, and emergency management for K-12 schools. As you develop leadership support strategies for staff and students and advocate for team approaches to crisis planning, you’ll also assess the current legal and political issues affecting school safety and security. You’ll also evaluate leadership responses to ethical issues and create risk assessment plans for evaluating physical risks within schools. Finally, you’ll determine emergency manager responsibilities in planning systems to prevent and mitigate crisis incidents in diverse K-12 settings.

SEM-7400 Violence Prevention and Response

A practitioner’s perspective on violence prevention and response in K-12 schools. This course examines violent acts, the impetus behind them, responses to them, and behavioral assessment plans that can evaluate behavioral risks that may lead to them. Additionally, you’ll explore the roles of restorative justice systems, trauma-informed educational practices, and social-emotional learning in preventing school violence. As a final exercise, you’ll apply everything you’ve learned to create a violence response plan that considers diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice within a diverse school setting.

SEM-7500 All-Hazards Response and Recovery

This course focuses on the response to and recovery from school safety, security, or emergency management events at K-12 schools. You’ll assess the roles of administrators before, during, and after crisis incidents and evaluate school-family reunification plans. You’ll also learn to compose continuity-of-operations and physical-recovery plans following a crisis incident, and recommend ways in which school administrators should consider diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice when creating such procedures. Finally, you’ll exercise your learning by designing and developing your academic and psychological recovery plans.

SEM-7600 Capstone: Developing Strategies and Policies to Further Safety, Security, and Emergency Management Practices

This course is the certificate capstone to your school safety, security, and emergency management studies. You’ll use the foundational principles and approaches to create a capstone project that reviews crisis response and recovery policies for K-12 schools across diverse settings. You’ll justify the use of threat and hazard identification and risk assessment (THIRA) prior to developing school emergency plans, and demonstrate your ability to create crisis communication and collaboration strategies. Finally, you’ll advocate for safety and security prevention strategies that consider diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice when preparing emergency operations plans.