Admission Requirement

Students may apply for admission to the doctoral programs at any time throughout the academic year. In addition to University requirements the following criteria are required for admission to the Literacy Studies doctoral programs:

1. Evidence of three years of full-time teaching experience, or the equivalent.
2. Master’s degree in education, or a related field, with a minimum GPA of 3.2.
3. Official copies of transcripts of all post-secondary degrees.
4. A current resume or curriculum vitae.
5. Three letters of recommendation including at least one from a school administrator or former professor.
6. Scores from either the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) or Graduate Record Exam (GRE) taken within the last five years.
7. A carefully written Statement of Purpose (minimum of 500 words in length) indicating the applicant’s reasons for pursuing advanced scholarship in literacy studies at Hofstra. The statement should include the applicant’s academic and professional history and a statement of academic and professional goals.
8. A writing sample (e.g., a college paper, a published article, or any other example of scholarship). The paper should demonstrate how the applicant works with a body of literature and builds an argument. Typically, the sample paper is from a university course   completed within the last five years.
9. An interview with two members of the literacy studies faculty to discuss the applicant’s academic, professional and research   experiences and interests.

International doctoral applicants should consult with the Department of Literacy Studies when applying. Prospective international students should also contact the Office of Multicultural and International Student Programs, (516) 463-6796.

Application files are assessed on the basis of the information contained within the file. No decisions can be made until all the required information has been provided by the applicant. Consideration is given to a combination of criteria including: a) demonstration of academic standing; b) professional experience; c) potential to pursue and benefit from advanced graduate studies.

Advisement

Qualifying Requirements

Students are admitted conditionally. Upon completion of no less than 12 semester hours and no more than 15 semester hours of doctoral course work, students are required to demonstrate scholarship through the presentation of a portfolio to a qualifying committee of three literacy studies faculty members: the student’s doctoral adviser, the doctoral director, and one additional faculty member. A successful qualifying hearing and presentation of the portfolio is required to continue doctoral study.
Students should include the following in their portfolios:

1. A narrative reflection on the theoretical and conceptual frameworks for language, literacy and learning that have emerged from their initial course work.
2. Theoretical papers and accounts of research projects.
3. A bibliography of texts that focus on: a) language, literacy and learning from multiple theoretical and conceptual frameworks and    b) approaches to qualitative and quantitative research.
4. A transcript with a minimum GPA of 3.5 for the courses taken in the doctoral program.
5. A plan of study.

Matriculation Requirements

Maintaining Matriculation
In order to maintain matriculation, all doctoral students are required to register for a minimum of 3 s.h. during the fall and spring semesters. After the completion of doctoral course work or during a permitted leave from course work, doctoral students are required to maintain matriculation during the fall and spring semesters. Doctoral students are required to complete their degree within ten years of the date of admission as a matriculated student.

Reinstatement of Matriculation
Any student who fails to maintain continuous matriculation must contact the doctoral director and request reinstatement in writing. Reinstatements are not automatic and may be denied. Students who have no record of attendance for 15 months must reapply for admission to the degree program, and are subject to the requirements of the current degree program. All requests must be approved by the Literacy Studies faculty and are contingent upon satisfactory progress toward completion of the degree.

Residency Requirements

Ethical Conduct

Graduation Requirements

1. Completion of the 60-credit program with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.5 or better.
2. Completion of a satisfactory candidacy paper prior to entering the doctoral dissertation sequence (LYST 601-605).
3. Completion of a satisfactory research dissertation.
4. Satisfactory performance in an oral examination to be given subsequent to the completion of the dissertation.
5. Students in the Ph.D. program must fulfill a second language requirement and an additional literacy research requirement.

Dismissal Policy

All decisions regarding dismissal will be made by the faculty members of the Literacy Studies Department. Students will be notified in writing within seven (7) days following the decision to dismiss. Students who wish to appeal their dismissal should refer to the “Policy for Dismissal and Appeal of Dismissal from a Graduate/Post-Graduate Program” as outlined in the Hofstra University Graduate Studies Bulletin. The following guidelines provide reasons for dismissal:

1. Students have two opportunities to successfully complete the candidacy paper. Failure to do so constitutes grounds for dismissal.
2. Students are expected to maintain a grade point average of 3.5 to be in good academic standing.
3. Students may receive no more than one C per semester and no more than three Cs in total toward the doctorate.
4. Doctoral students who receive a C, or have a grade point average below 3.5, will be notified that they are on academic probationand failure to bring up their grades is cause for dismissal.
5. If a student earns a grade of D in a course, the student will be immediately placed on probation and a remedial plan will be deve-oped by the faculty. In the case of a D, course credit will not count toward the degree being sought but the grade will be includedin determining the cumulative grade-point average. The course or its equivalent must be repeated.
6. A second grade of D received in any course while enrolled in the program is grounds for immediate dismissal.
7. A grade of F in any class is grounds for immediate dismissal from the program.

Program Requirements - Semester Hours: 60

Both the Ed.D. and the Ph.D. programs in Literacy Studies consist of 60 semester hours of post masters graduate course work. Students who have earned a Professional Diploma in Advanced Literacy Studies from Hofstra may apply 15 semester hours toward the doctoral program. Students entering the program without a background in literacy studies may be required to complete additional masters coursework in literacy beyond the 60 semester hours.

At least 57 semester hours of course work required for the doctorate must be taken at Hofstra during the ten-year period preceding the conferral of the degree. This ten-year period covers the time from admission as a matriculated doctoral student to completion of all degree requirements. After the successful completion of the candidacy paper, doctoral dissertation research must be completed within five years.

Students in the Ph.D. program must fulfill a second language requirement and an additional literacy research requirement.

No doctoral courses may be taken on a pass/fail basis except for courses stipulated as pass/fail and the dissertation sequence.


Literacy Core Area Seminars (15 s.h. min.)
Students in the Ed.D. and Ph.D in Literacy Studies programs are required to complete at least one doctoral seminar in each of the five literacy core areas:

Literacy, Literature and the Imagination (LYST 361 A-Z Series)
Courses in this doctoral core focus on the role of language, literature and the imagination in constructing knowledge of self and of understandings of the world in which we live, teach, and learn. Through transactions with socially-situated texts and scripts and other semiotic systems such as art, music, and dance, students consider the relationships between language and thought and literacy and the imagination.

Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Perspectives of Literacy (LYST 362 A-Z Series)
Courses in this doctoral core draw from the disciplines of sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, developmental psychology and reader response theory. The focus is on understanding reading and writing processes embedded in social practices and the ways in which people construct and transact with written texts. Investigations of oral language, language learning, relationships between oral and written language, and relationships between semiotic systems (literacy, art, music) are integral to understanding literacy as a language process. Historic and current theoretical frameworks and models of reading and writing and related research practices within a variety of social contexts (classrooms, clinics, communities, families) are addressed.

Literacy Learning and Pedagogical Practices (LYST 363 A-Z Series)
Courses in this doctoral core focus on current trends in literacy learning, literacy teaching, curriculum development, language policies in schools and educational institutions, classroom research, professional development and teacher education in literacy. The history of literacy teaching is highlighted as well as the influence of current and past theoretical perspectives about language, literacy and literacy learning. Also examined are the historic tensions between varied and conflicting theoretical orientations toward literacy learning and teaching. Issues of diversity and inequity in literacy teaching and schooling (particularly in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation and exceptionality) are critical in discussions of literacy learning, teaching and schooling. Research frameworks that address literacy learning and teaching are another focus area, with particular attention to teacher research.

Sociopolitical Perspectives of Literacy (LYST 364 A-Z Series)
Courses in this doctoral core provide students with the opportunity to investigate the contextualized nature of literacy practices and the ways these practices shape, and are shaped by, historical, cultural, social and political contexts in which they occur. Courses within this core will introduce students to the dialectical relationships that exist between local literacies and larger sociopolitical and ideological frameworks, and students will be invited to question and problematize taken-for-granted assumptions about the educational experiences of students from dominant and parallel cultures.

Cultural Historical Perspectives of Literacy (LYST 365 A-Z Series)
Courses in this doctoral core area reflect the current trends in cultural and historical theoretical perspectives of literacy and language development and use. The examination of how literacy and literacy learning have been conceptualized historically and culturally provides a broader, more dynamic view of literacy. Focus is placed on the debates surrounding the connections between literacy and cognitive processing, the role of literacy in cultural-historical perspectives of human development, the creation of writing systems, the communicative demands of semiotic systems, and the social practices which help shape the use of language, literacy and other semiotic systems. The relevance of these theoretical perspectives to current educational practices is also addressed.

Research Requirements - Semester Hours: 18-22

• LYST 241 - Miscue Analysis and Retrospective Miscue Analysis Semester Hours: 3

• or

• LYST 244 - Advanced Retrospective Miscue Analysis Semester Hours: 3
• LYST 360 - Apprenticeship in the Ethnography of Literacy Research Semester Hours: 3
• LYST 369 - Pre-Dissertation Planning Seminar Semester Hours: 1
• LYST 370 - Advanced Seminar in the Ethnography of Literacy Research Semester Hours: 3
• RES 359 - Interpreting Quantitative Data in Education Semester Hours: 4
• RES 360 - Interpreting Quantitative Data in Education II Semester Hours: 4

Areas of Advanced Study - Semester Hours: 9 (minimum)

Ph.D. and Ed.D. candidates take additional course work extending one or more areas of study. This course work may include additional Literacy Core Area Seminars. The following courses are also recommended as extending the core areas of study:

Related Course Work - Semester Hours: 5-9 (minimum)

Related course work is designed to expand upon the doctoral students’ understandings of international scholarship in literacy studies and inform their understandings in related fields such as anthropology, linguistics, aesthetics, and philosophy of education. Advisers may recommend additional course work beyond the minimal 5 to 9 semester hours for students without a background in literacy. Specific requirements for the related coursework will be established in the doctoral plan of study.

Doctoral students are expected to attend the International Scholars Forum (LYST 351) a minimum of four times. In the case of students whose plan of study does not require 4 s.h. of related course work or those students who have completed their doctoral study, the International Scholars Forums may be taken as not for credit paid workshops.

Candidacy Paper

All course requirements must be completed.
A grade must be submitted for any course in which the doctoral student has an incomplete.
Students must have maintained a 3.5 GPA.

Dissertation Sequence - Semester Hours: 9 (minimum)

• LYST 601 - Dissertation Proposal Planning Semester Hours: 3 s.h.
• LYST 602 - Dissertation Proposal Preparation Semester Hours: 3
• LYST 603 - Dissertation Proposal Preparation Extension Semester Hours: 3
• LYST 604 - Dissertation Advisement Semester Hours: 3
• LYST 605 - Dissertation Advisement Extension Semester Hours: 3

Notes:

1. Following completion of LYST 601, students who have successfully completed their proposal may continue in LYST 604. Those who have not completed their proposal will take LYST 602 and, if needed, LYST 603. Candidates who do not produce a defensible proposal in LYST 603 must exit the program.
2. Candidates who have successfully completed their proposal enter LYST 604, which may be taken up to four times. After four semesters in LYST 604, candidates enter LYST 605 and must complete their dissertation within that semester.
3. Students receive 3 s.h. for LYST 601 when they pass their dissertation proposal defense. Upon completion of the dissertation, candidates earn a minimum of 6 s.h. for LYST 604. LYST 602, 603, and 605 are non-credit courses for the degree.