Distance Education Phd Program,Distance Learning D.A.?

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Q. I have seen several references and posts over the past months to DL PhD sites. Are there any accredited DL DA (Doctor of Arts) programs? I don't recall seeing any in Dr. Bear's book, but then again, I just got bifocals....

A. I'm aware of in the States, but I think Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia might have had a D.A. program of some kind. I'll be running across my papers within the next few days, in all likelihood, so I'll drop a note if I find anything interesting. My completely non-authoritative answer is that I've never seen one. DA's are so unusual that there probably isn't a lot of demand for a distance one. I think the DA degree is interesting and probably an excellent idea. As I understand it, it isn't a Doctor of Fine Arts at all. Rather, it's a *teaching* oriented doctorate, and may be earned in many non-arts subjects. I've seen DA's in mathematics for example. (Illinois State University) Apparently the emphasis is less on highly-focused ultra-specialized dissertation research, and much more on developing proven expertise in the subjects taught in a normal bachelor's level curriculum. I think they empasize teaching experience more than other doctoral programs too. So the idea is to produce people who know the material they will be called on to teach, and who can handle themselves well in front of a classroom. Probably DA's would be best suited for a liberal arts college type setting, rather than teaching graduate students. They still do dissertations though, I don't know what's up with that. Smaller dissertations? Pedagogically oriented dissertations? The question I have is: Do any of these DA's ever get hired? For all their posing as political progressives, academics are probably the most heirarchical people on earth. So there must be tremendous Ph.D. snobbery towards DA's. Most of the implementations concerning teaching seminars, and internships which are a part of a Doctor of Arts program have already been implemented into many Ph.D programs. I have written a paper over this topic from an historical point of view, but I do not know if it is quality enough to be published but if you are interested in discussing this topic further I would greatly appreciate the dialogue. My paper revolves around the idea of the doctorate being a license to teach from its inception during the middle ages. The idea of being research based came from the German model of higher education. I also use trends in higher education such as increased enrollments, and an increase in loan-based aid as reasons to support the inclusion of teaching experiences in the traditional Ph.D program. As you can tell I am new to conducting research, and any discussion along these lines would be very much appreciated.

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