Criterion-inspired, Emergent Design in Doctoral Education: A Critical Friends Perspective

Abstract

The Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) is focused on encouraging Schools of Education to reclaim the education doctorate (EdD) (Shulman, Golde, Bueschel, & Garabedian, 2006) by developing EdD programs that refine the leadership skills of practitioners of educational leadership who wish to remain in practice. The creation of such programs implies a set of courses and emphases that are distinct from those conventionally offered in the PhD. As Mezirow (1990) asserted, “we learn differently when we are learning to perform than when we are learning to understand what is being communicated to us” (p. 1). This is not to say that the CPED-aligned EdD is devoid of learning to understand, but the emphasis on practice suggests that the identical course will not conform well to both EdD and PhD programs. In this context, the EdD has to overcome an “80-year history of confusion” (Perry, 2011, p. 3)—a history during which it has sometimes been referred to as “PhD-Lite” (Shulman et al., p. 27)—on its way to being known as “the highest professional degree in education” (Shulman et al., p. 28). To facilitate the process, Shulman et al. (2006) proposed “a ‘zero base’ approach to design, without any of the assumptions that characterize the status quo” (p. 28).