Ed.S. and Ed.D. Teaching and Learning: Disability and Equity in Education

About the Ed.S. and Ed.D. Teaching and Learning: Disability and Equity in Education

Would you like to impact social and academic equity for people with disabilities in PK-12 schools, higher education, community, or public policy?

The Ed.S. and Ed.D. in Teaching and Learning: Disability and Equity in Education is meant for individuals committed to affecting institutional and social change in understanding, representing, and designing for and with people with disabilities. Our students desire to work towards creating the conditions for meaningful participation in education and society through a disability-rights perspective and collaborative engagement with people with disabilities and their families.

This unique, social-model program prepares students to impact policy and practice through research, scholarship, pedagogy, and activism centered on the critical analysis of the social construction and material conditions of disability. Interdisciplinary coursework involves building the analytic, academic, and practical skills needed to understand and dismantle oppressive systems and create more inclusive and generative educational and social systems. This includes an intersectional understanding of disability identity and an explicit commitment to disability justice.  

With an Ed.S. or Ed.D. Teaching and Learning: Disability and Equity in Education you'll know:

• How to understand and identify historical, political, social, cultural, and philosophical values, beliefs, and processes that have shaped the disability education field
• How to become activists for equity in schools, communities, and practice
• How to affect social change through research and teaching
• How to combine theory and practice to create a viable learning community

Graduates of the program assume or deepen their roles in PK-12, higher education, community, and/or policy positions. They often become advocates and consultants for disability justice.

*This program is offered in our Low Residency format.

The National Louis University Low Residency approach provides learners in select programs with the convenience of online learning and the opportunity to meet occasionally with their classmates and professors, as well as with community members to engage in networking, team building, and high-impact instruction. Low Residency programs are essentially fully online programs paired with integral, intentional, and structured in-person learning events (residencies). 

Those residencies are used to help learners build their professional identities, expand their networks, and to engage in peer-based learning in flexible and creative ways, all built around their online course offering.  Programs offered in this unique format are designed for working professionals and/or those learners whose schedules might not permit them the option of meeting face-to-face for the entire program and/or those that value the flexibility of online courses, but also place importance on in-person learning. 

Residency frequency and location vary by program, please click the curriculum link below for details.

Questions?

Contact Marci Mazza, Director of Enrollment: MMazza@nl.edu 

Student Spotlight

Jennifer Hull, (Ed.D. '19) Adjunct Instructor, National Louis University Volunteer, Lake County Emergency Management Agency

"Because of my research and the DEE curricula, I began to question where I saw populations excluded within my community. As a result, I started volunteering for an international disaster emergency management center where I applied an advocacy and disability studies lens to address gaps within disaster services and policies to ensure the inclusion of elders and people with disabilities throughout the disaster response cycle.”