The degree of Doctor of Mediation (D.Med.) is designed for professionals actively engaged in mediation and/or conflict resolution within the framework of pastoral care and nurture. As an ecumenical program, the D.Med. will prove valuable to professionals working in cognates of ministry including the various forms of mediation such as working with the courts, family life programs, child care and juvenile facilities, health care institutions, professional organizations, chaplaincy programs, and in ecclesiastical settings.

 

Professional mediators will find the program designed to enhance their work within the judicial system by elevating their professional status as peers among attorneys, judges, legislative administrators, and other members of the legal profession. Ministry professionals, whether serving in health care, ecclesiastical, judicial, or educational institutions, will find their profile elevated owing to the specialized training offered in this degree program.

 

This degree is a 36 credit program that may be completed in no less than eighteen months and no more than three years.

 

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This program requires the completion of ten Units of Study. A Unit of Study is defined as 40 contact hours of instruction and is equivalent to a 3-credit graduate-level course, one Unit of Clinical Pastoral Education, or 4 Continuing Education Units.

 

Units of Study may be completed through the GTF, from other approved venues, or by using transfer credit.

The Study Options button on the GTF’s website under the heading Academics lists the course offerings of the GTF and provides information about the various methods of earning Units of Study for your degree.  

 

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Research Methodology 

 

Research Methodology is a required course for all students. The Research Methodology course requirement is explained here.    

 

 

Any student wishing to have previously completed academic work evaluated for possible transfer credit or wishing to complete coursework through a venue other than the Graduate Theological Foundation for use as transfer credit toward a degree, must contact the Office of the Registrar for approval. Students may use transfer credit to fulfill a maximum 50% of their Unit of Study requirements for this degree program.  Accepted transfer credit has the potential to decrease the total tuition paid by the student. Requests for acceptance of transfer credit are reviewed on a case by case basis. GTF transfer credit policy allows for a $600 tuition reduction per Unit of Study (3 graduate credits) fulfilled by transfer credit.

 

 

Students select a faculty member of the GTF to serve as Project Consultant. This enables the student to receive helpful and pragmatic evaluative feedback from a member of the faculty in the developmental process of producing the Exit Project. The role of the faculty Project Consultant is responsive and suggestive rather than “supervisory” as is the case with academic thesis writing. The faculty person is encouraged to limit feedback to pragmatically helpful hints and suggestions and not to attempt any censorship of the project. The exercise of discretion with respect to time demands is very important for both the student and faculty member. The faculty Project Consultant must give final approval of the student’s work by submitting the Project Consultant’s Report Form. 

 

In order to ensure the highest level of academic rigor and to provide constructive and helpful feedback, students enrolled in professional doctoral degrees at the GTF will have a Doctoral Committee assigned to them.    

 

 

Doctoral Project Consultant – The Doctoral Project Consultant will work closely with the doctoral candidate in the development of the project.  The project consultant has no responsibility for any copyediting of the manuscript, but is responsible for providing guidance regarding content and academic protocols.  The GTF expects that the project consultant must finally and formally approve of the doctoral project and submit the Doctoral Project Consultant’s Report Form.

 

Faculty Reader –Upon submission of the doctoral project and receipt of the Doctoral Project Consultant’s report, the Faculty Reader will read and review the work.  The Faculty Reader will submit a brief review and evaluation of the doctoral project.  If the Faculty Reader has any major concerns regarding the acceptability of the work, those concerns will be brought to the attention of the Doctoral Committee Chair, the Doctoral Project Consultant, and the doctoral student.

 

Doctoral Committee Chair – The Doctoral Committee Chair will write a final evaluation of the work which will be based on the Doctoral Project Consultant’s report, the Faculty Reader’s report, and the Doctoral Committee Chair’s own evaluation of the work.

 

 

The Doctoral Project is a translation into practice of the insights, values, and creative concerns developed during the course of the units of learning and intervening periods of reading, reflection, and application. The project should directly relate the implications of the evolving relationships within the actual practice of mediation to the concepts and theories studied during the degree program. 

 

The Doctoral Project is a demonstration of praxis. Its structure, focus, and content, therefore, allows for a wide range of differing forms appropriate to the actual area of the practice of mediation addressed. The form of the project is dictated by the topic, but in most cases, mediation projects focus upon either case studies or administrative and institutional issues related to the management and governance of mediation programs. For the mediation project, the expectation is that the manuscript will run between 35,000-40,000 words, double-spaced, footnoted, and with significant bibliographical references of at least 35 sources. It is recommended that the bibliography include an annotated listing of the 10-12 sources that were key to the development of the project.

 

In keeping with the nature of the entire Doctoral Program as an open interaction with fellow professionals, the project is a demonstration of practice, an exploration of applied reflections, or creative work rather than a test submitted to prove competency.  Once the final version of the doctoral project is approved by the student’s project consultant, one electronic copy must be submitted by the student to the Office of the Registrar. 

 

The Doctor of Mediation is offered in collaboration with the Worklife Institute of Houston, Texas, under the direction of Dr. Diana C. Dale. Mention of the P.R.I.M.E. relationship with the Worklife Institute has been placed here owing to the fact that this relationship has produced a separate and unique degree program in mediation. Please see the P.R.I.M.E. section for information on the Worklife Institute.