The program aims to cultivate highly skilled professionals capable of solving challenges and generating innovative proposals for issues faced by educational administration and educational settings. To this end, the program emphasizes collaborative problem formulation involving boards of education, schools, and the university, together with the implementation of advanced research outcomes in practice and interdisciplinary approaches.
Specifically, the program develops professionals who possess the ability to accurately identify and structure issues arising in educational practice and independently formulate research problems. They will be equipped with the vision and leadership required for educational policy development, institutional design, and organizational management through the application of interdisciplinary theories and advanced research methodologies. In addition, they will gain an understanding of the public and ethical dimensions of educational practice, generate knowledge that is both academically valid and practically useful, and possess the professional competencies necessary to propose and implement research-based solutions in schools, educational administration, and local communities in forms suitable for practical application.

The Professional Practice and Educational Leadership Program is designed to cultivate highly skilled professionals who can investigate issues arising in educational practice through a continuous interplay between theory and practice and promote problem-solving and social implementation based on research methodologies. To this end, the curriculum is systematically organized.
Within the university-wide graduate subjects, students are required to complete one subject (at least 1 credit) selected from the Sustainable Development Subjects and one subject (at least 1 credit) selected from the Career Development and Data Literacy Subjects. In addition, students must complete one subject (at least 2 credits) from the graduate school-wide subjects. These subjects foster the broad perspectives and multifaceted ways of thinking expected of highly skilled professionals.
Within the program-specific subjects, students are required to complete five subjects (14 credits) from the Program Subjects and one subject (2 credits) from the Collaborative Subjects.
The Program Subjects include Comprehensive Legal Studies (2 credits) and Advanced Organizational Management Studies (2 credits), which develop the ability to theoretically structure issues confronting educational administration and school settings and to explore them from interdisciplinary perspectives while providing foundational knowledge of educational systems, organizational management, and policy formation. To acquire research methodologies that contribute to educational practice, students take Research Methodology (2 credits) and Pilot Study Seminar (2 credits). Through these subjects, students acquire a range of research methodologies, including qualitative research, quantitative research, and action research, and develop the ability to scientifically analyze and examine issues arising in educational practice. Furthermore, students undertake Special Study (6 credits) to promote practice-based research aimed at solving problems in collaboration with boards of education, schools, and local communities. In this subject, they set and examine issues based on theoretical knowledge and conduct practical research directed toward social implementation. In the Collaborative Subjects, students complete Organizational Collaboration and Interdisciplinary Studies (2 credits), through which they learn collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to addressing complex issues spanning education, welfare, and local communities while developing leadership and ethical decision-making skills applicable to diverse educational settings.
In this way, the curriculum of this program systematically connects the development of theoretical foundations, the acquisition of research methodologies, the investigation of practical issues in educational settings, and the social implementation of research outcomes. Through a cyclical process of learning that integrates theory and practice, the program seeks to cultivate highly skilled professionals equipped with both a strong sense of public responsibility and ethical awareness.
Examples of anticipated research topics include the following: the development of models for the design, implementation, and evaluation of school management based on learning logs, school administrative data, and educational assessment data; contributions to policy and practice improvement through the visualization and structural understanding of issues based on educational data; and the advancement of subject instruction and assessment, and the incorporation of contemporary and pioneering theories and their implementation in school settings. Unlike those typically pursued in professional graduate schools for teacher education, these research themes are intended to generate outcomes that can be broadly applied and reflected in educational administration and school education practice.

Prospective students for this program are expected primarily to be graduates of professional graduate schools for teacher education, whose mission is to cultivate advanced practical competencies and leadership in educational practice. Consequently, most research topics are anticipated to have a strongly clinical character and to be closely connected to educational settings. This program aims to cultivate even more advanced professionals capable of solving challenges and generating innovative proposals for issues faced by educational administration, educational settings, and affiliated schools and kindergartens with their own distinctive missions. To this end, the program emphasizes collaborative problem formulation involving boards of education, schools, affiliated schools and kindergartens, and the university, together with the implementation of advanced research outcomes in practice and interdisciplinary approaches. Given these characteristics, research conducted within the program may not necessarily be grounded in conventional academic theoretical frameworks. In light of these distinctive features, both the doctoral dissertations produced in the program and the degree awarded in recognition of such achievements should be distinguished from the traditional doctoral degree in education. Accordingly, the degree title Doctor of Philosophy in Professional Practice in Education and Educational Leadership is considered appropriate. In North America, Europe, and China, professional doctoral degrees in education, represented by the Ed.D., are widely recognized and highly valued. A considerable number of school principals and senior educational administrators hold such degrees. In view of these international developments, the program is designated as the Professional Practice and Educational Leadership Program, and graduates will be awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Professional Practice in Education and Educational Leadership.

1-1-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8524, Japan
Tel: +81-82-424-6705 / Fax: +81-82-424-3478 (Support Office for the fields of Education / Managing Support Office for the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences)
* For inquiries regarding admissions (e-mail): kyoiku-in＊office.hiroshima-u.ac.jp (Please replace “＊” with “@” before sending your e-mail.)