Antioch’s PhD in Leadership and Change is designed to support socially engaged leaders and change agents to inquire into the complex  challenges of their fields and to conduct research that can help improve that practice.

At the heart of study is the student’s own practice in professional life. The program enables learners to continuously reflect on and integrate their real-world experience with scholarship and methods of inquiry. The program encourages students to integrate theory and practice in order to enrich their own practice and expand relevant theory. This is not about an ivory tower, but about taking your learning into your workplace and community to help make positive change, improve outcomes, and engage individuals in ways that benefit the common good.

Deep learning in the research, theory and practice of leading change is coupled with the development of research skills in order to engage in rigorous inquiry in the students’ areas of professional passion. The outcome is that as students practice the art of leading change, the application of research and theory guides their actions. Rather than standardized tests and discrete courses that may have little relation to what is learned, the program’s curricular pathways are marked by demonstrations of student learning coupled with face-to-face residencies and virtual learning activities between the gatherings. As students make progress, their individualized paths within the larger interdisciplinary study of leadership and change become clearer.