As I am getting older I have decided it is finally time to go back and start pursuing my PhD (it is a personal goal, not necessarily a career goal). Since the number of part time doctoral programs are limited, I am somewhat tailoring my interests to align both with the local availability of programs as well as my career (so I can get tuition reimbursement from my work)... I am in corporate training / education and will be pursing a PhD in Ed Psych.. the MESA program to be specific.
Your post is very interesting and timely. I worked 8 years as a corporate technical trainer and changed jobs a year ago. Now I do adjuncting. I have decided to get my PhD in educational psychology - specifically in educational technology. I have spent a lot of time considering this and have done a significant amount of research. I looked into several different types of programs.
At first I assumed that I would have to go the route of an online program. I assumed that the brick and mortar programs were for full time students. I was shocked when I realized how many options there are locally specifically for Education. I am in the Los Angeles area so I imagine that there are many more opportunities here but I am guessing that other cities/states are similar. Many education programs, specifically those which are leadership oriented, actually cater to the part time student. A large portion of their student body are current educators who wish to move into leadership positions. This means many programs offer nights and weekends and some will even offer programs in satellite locations. Here in Los Angeles the big name research universities offer these types of programs. Two of the smaller state schools are in the process of adding Ed.D programs which will be run through both the state schools and one of the UCs. Two of the smaller state school have had their programs in place for about 3 years and they are growing. Still there are a number of smaller, for profit schools which also offer either PhDs or Ed.Ds.
Like I said most are leadership oriented. These programs include specialities in administration, pre/K-12 leadership, urban education leadership higher education leadership and technology leadership. The educational psych programs (not leadership oriented) tend to be for full time students. I imagine that the typical applicant is not a current educator but a person who is interested in research and a future positions doing research and not management or administration at a school district or higher ed location. Two of the programs I am looking into are PhDs and not Ed.Ds. For this reason I will probably end up not working while I study. If I could do a few adjunct courses I will. I personally like research and am not a big fan of educational administration.
In the end it depends on what you plan to do with the degree. If you are going into an administrative, management or a consulting role in K-12 or higher education then a part time education program would be normal on a CV or resume. I also assume that if you continue in the corporate world part time would be OK. It would also be OK if you are planning to work in an education department at a non traditional school like the Capella's or Walden's. For university tt teaching and research oriented jobs at brick and mortar schools it would probably be different. Since I am not sure what the MESA program is (I am more into educational media and computer based learning) I don't quite know what you would be doing after obtaining your doctorate.
Like I said I am looking into this for fall 2007 and am gathering the information needed to apply. If you learn anything interesting I would love to hear about it.
HTH
