Apr 03, 2026

2026-2027 Catalog

Transformational Leadership and Coaching, EDD

Location(s): Online

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The MIU Doctor of Education Program in Transformational Leadership and Coaching enables graduates to expand their influence and impact in their chosen careers by developing advanced scholar practitioner skills as leaders, coaches, educators, and researchers.

The program prepares students in a wide range of fields including business, consulting, healthcare, coaching, teaching, training, higher education, human resources development, and any profession where interpersonal communication, developing oneself and others, and facilitating learning and change in organizational settings is an important factor in career advancement and success.

Throughout the doctoral program, students develop and employ coaching, leadership, and related facilitation skills to bring out the best in themselves and those they lead and coach. They are trained to develop, implement, and assess transformational vision and strategy for individuals, groups, and organizations—facilitating the development of learning organizations and enhancing quality of life in their chosen fields. Students develop skills to assess the current state and challenges of the individuals or groups they coach and/or lead and to facilitate the design of solutions to individual or organizational challenges using coaching and a wide array of leadership and educational skills to motivate individuals and teams to their highest potential.

OVERVIEW OF 3-YEAR CURRICULUM

Year One

Skills related to leadership and coaching are the focus of the first year of the program, with a specialization on learning human emergence technologies for facilitating growth and learning and systems frameworks for understanding the change process in organizational settings.

Students will learn to integrate emergence theories and methodologies throughout the doctoral program, drawing on research from developmental and systems theories; experiential, transformational, and social-emotional learning theories; Adlerian, humanistic, and existential psychologies; and neuroscience and related research.

Students also clarify their applied dissertation research projects during this first year, as they identify the issue or problem they want to address and the types of interventions they are interested in designing and leading to address that issue.

Year Two

In year two, students learn to design applied projects in organizational contexts, including courses in organizational development, change strategies, and organizational design. They also study applied research methodologies used in organizational settings, including an overview of specified research approaches and a deeper training in the methodology that is best suited to their applied dissertation research project. Students can expect to make significant progress in developing as practitioner-researchers in their chosen field, with the foundational skills to continue applied research and/or teach research process in institutions of higher education.

Year Three

Students can expect to complete their dissertation projects in their third year. This allows for a full academic year to finalize the proposal, execute the project, and assess the results. In most cases, students will complete a first draft of their dissertation proposal by the end of year two, so that the focus in the third year is on execution and assessment of results. Students will also have had the opportunity to do trial runs of their coaching, educational, or change intervention during year two, so that by year three they are well-prepared to complete the project within academic year.

TOOLS FOR PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION

The program learning outcomes also focus on the development of techniques for consciousness development and personal growth. The program integrates principles of the science of creative intelligence as developed in the Vedic tradition of MIU, along with experiential learning labs based on principles of social-emotional learning and the facilitation of human emergence. The synergies between these two approaches are an important feature of the experiential learning process throughout the EdD program.

We also use an integrative emergence methodology in our educational approach throughout the EdD program. This includes a process that we refer to as yearning-based learning, where students’ deeper yearnings and interests determine the focus of their dissertation project. All courses involve the integration of experiential, academic, and applied learning in this approach. A social-emotional intelligence lab (EQ Lab) provides the focus for experiential learning throughout the first two years of the program. This course runs parallel to the academic curriculum, so that the student is always grounding their academic learning in their personal experience. Students also receive emergence coaching from a faculty coach every other week during the semesters of the program. The student’s own process of emergence as a person is thus an essential dimension of the learning process. Each student’s becoming the person they yearn to become is the living curriculum of the program.

As students explore academic content related the theories and methodologies they are studying, they are also engaging with the content in a personal way. The personal knowing thus provides a foundation for the academic learning, and the academic learning helps to inform the personal learning by adding depth and new questions to explore. Finally, each course includes an applied dimension, where the students are immediately applying what they learn in their lives and work. As they learn about coaching, they are also practicing coaching as part of the program and receiving mentoring in the process. As they study leadership, they also explore how they are learning new ways to be in rapport and to influence others toward mutually agreed upon ends. Each class will encourage integration of the student’s experiential, academic, and applied learning, based on what matters to the student in their life, their work, and their understanding of the fields of study in which they are engaged.

PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES

Upon successfully completing the Doctor of Education in Transformational Leadership and Coaching, graduates will be able to:

Graduates will be able to identify a research opportunity that has, at its core, a need for personal transformation and/or organizational learning.

Graduates will be able to design and lead an intervention to address an opportunity or problem that has, at its core, a need for personal transformation and/or organizational learning.

Graduates are able to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention that addresses an opportunity or problem that has, at its core, a need for personal transformation and/or organizational learning.

Graduates will grow in consciousness and develop themselves personally

ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS

All applicants must have a master’s degree in any field from an accredited university. Admission will be based on undergraduate and graduate transcripts, professional recommendations, and interviews.

All international students must submit official English proficiency test scores (either TOEFL or IELTS) as part of their application. The test must have been taken within the past two years. Minimum proficiency scores are 6.5 on IELTS, 575 TOEFL paper-based, 230 TOEFL computer-based, 90 TOEFL internet-based, or 58 PTE.

Applicants are exempt from this requirement if they have resided in the following countries for a minimum of 2 years: American Samoa, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada (except Quebec), Dominica, Grenada, Grand Cayman, Guyana, Ireland, Jamaica, Liberia, New Zealand, Trinidad/Tobago, United Kingdom, and US Pacific Trust.

GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS

To graduate with an EdD in Transformational Leadership and Coaching, students must successfully complete 53 credits, including the 4-credit Science of Creative Intelligence course required for all graduate students, one Forest Academy course in each semester in which the student is enrolled for 12 weeks or more, and 46 credits of required EdD courses.

EDD in Transformational Leadership and Coaching Requirements

Forest Academy Requirement (3 credits)

Any Forest Academy course Credits: 1 *
Any Forest Academy course Credits: 1 *
Any Forest Academy course Credits: 1 *

*FOR 500 fulfills the Forest Academy requirement for the semester in which the course is completed.

Total Credits Required 53

Doctoral Dissertation, Exam, and Grade Requirements

To graduate with an EdD in Transformational Leadership and Coaching, students must meet the following requirements:

Course Grades

A grade of B (3.00 GPA) or higher in all courses. If a student’s GPA drops below 3.0, then the course instructor(s) and the program director will meet with the student to identify the reason their grade dropped below the threshold. The student, the course instructor, and the program director will create an academic improvement plan with clear milestones. The outcome of this meeting will be recorded in the student’s file.

Qualifying Examination

For the EdD program, approval of the dissertation proposal by the dissertation committee and the Dean of the Graduate School after a proposal defense qualifies the student to proceed with their dissertation research.

Advanced Coursework

Advanced courses may be prescribed by the dissertation advisor and dissertation committee to ensure that students have comprehensive knowledge of a major field and related subjects. The courses students are required to take will depend upon academic background in relation to their graduate program and area of research interest.

Dissertation Committee

A doctoral student must form a Dissertation Committee of at least four members including the dissertation advisor from the Student’s department, another faculty member from the student’s department, a faculty member from another MIU department, and one faculty member from another university or research institution. Each committee member is expected to hold a terminal degree. Dissertation committee membership must be approved by the director of the doctoral program and the Dean of Faculty.

Dissertation Proposal

The student submits the completed dissertation proposal to their Dissertation Committee for approval and presents an oral defense of the proposal to their committee. All students must submit their research design including consent forms to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for approving beneficence, justice, and care for the individual. See https://library.miu.edu/dissertation-guidelines-for-phd-candidates/ for details. After the dissertation proposal is approved by their committee and the Dean of the Graduate School, the student advances to EdD Researcher status to conduct the research, write the dissertation, and prepare an oral defense of the dissertation.

Original Research for a Dissertation

Each doctoral student must conduct original research as the basis for a dissertation that contributes significantly to knowledge. This research is guided by the dissertation advisor and the dissertation committee and requires their approval. All doctoral students must be registered during each block they’re working on their doctoral dissertation, whether they live on or off campus.

Doctoral Research Off Campous

Candidates for the doctoral degree may, with the approval of their dissertation committee, carry out all or part of their research work on campus or off campus. All doctoral students must be register at the Enrollment Center during each semester they’re working on their doctoral dissertation, whether they live on or off campus.

Written Dissertation and Abstract

Dissertation guidelines are online at www.library.miu.edu/dissertation-guidelines-for-phd-candidates/. Students should read these guidelines before beginning their dissertations. When writing a dissertation, students work closely with their dissertation advisor. At least four months before students plan to graduate, they should have the first version of their dissertation thoroughly checked by their dissertation advisor. Once the dissertation advisor has approved the dissertation, the student may submit the document to the other members of their dissertation committee. The committee members will review the document and give their comments in a timely fashion - within two weeks. After incorporating all comments, the student will send updated copies of the manuscript to all committee members at least two weeks before the dissertation defense.

Oral Defense of the Dissertation

The EdD Researcher must successfully complete an oral defense of the dissertation. The oral examination in defense of the dissertation is conducted and evaluated by the dissertation committee. The examination is scheduled for a date not earlier than two weeks after the dissertation and abstract have been submitted to the dissertation advisor and dissertation committee. The student must be registered during the semester in which the oral defense is conducted.

Publishing the Dissertation

When the dissertation committee has reviewed and approved the dissertation and the student has passed the dissertation defense, the student incorporates any further recommended changes and corrections before submitting the dissertation to the MIU Library. To aid in completing the final dissertation, students present an electronic copy of their dissertations one month before graduation to the MIU Library Director (even if the dissertation is not complete). The Library Director will give the student feedback on formatting the dissertation. One week before graduation, the student must give the Library Director a final printed copy of the dissertation and two copies of the abstract. Everything needs to be complete at this time.

All doctoral dissertations submitted to the Graduate School will be published. MIU subscribes to a service offered by ProQuest ETD Administrator. Information about the publication procedures and fees may be obtained from the MIU ProQuest ETD administrator website and from the MIU Library Director. Two copies of the dissertation will be placed in the MIU Library and will be available for interlibrary loan. The abstract will be published in Dissertation Abstracts, which announces the availability of the dissertation.

Exit Degree

Master of Transformational Leadership and Coaching

This degree will be awarded to students who have successfully completed all coursework in the Doctor of Education degree in Transformational Leadership and Coaching prior to the Dissertation Proposal courses. To qualify, students declare their intention not to pursue the doctoral degree on the appropriate form and complete a Master’s capstone project instead. Alternatively, the decision to exit with a Master’s degree may be made after a student has submitted a dissertation proposal that has been approved by the dissertation committee as sufficient to qualify as a Master’s capstone project.