Abstract
Doctoral faculty have long advocated for writing support for doctoral candidates during the dissertation stage. However, schools of education often fail to provide organizational supports to assist struggling dissertators. EdD students in CPED institutions may need additional supports due to shorter time-to-degree programs and full-time work commitments. This paper reports how one PhD student in a CPED institution acted as a dissertation consultant for 35 EdD dissertators and successfully guided them through their dissertations. The author examines how her background in composition, experiences in education research, and willingness to address socio-emotional needs contributed to this success and argues that PhD students with similar backgrounds can take up dissertation consulting work in schools of education as an organizational support for EdD dissertators. The mutual benefits of engaging in this work are discussed as is the potential for school-university partnerships stemming from PhD-EdD student collaboration during doctoral study.
Highlights
Scholars suggest that doctoral students need writing support, especially at the dissertation stage (Brooks-Gillies et al, 2015; Queen & Squires, 2011; Switzer & Perdue, 2011), yet providing such supports can be challenging (Russell, 2002)
EdD programs were designed for working practitioners, so EdD students are tasked with balancing full-time work and program commitments
Reimagined EdD programs, those following the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) framework (Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate [CPED], 2019), are transitioning to shorter time-to-degree programs (Perry, 2015), so students are tasked with similar work as traditional EdD programs but they must complete that work in an abbreviated amount of time1
Summary
This paper suggests leveraging PhD students in SOEs who have backgrounds in composition and educational research as dissertation consultants to support their peers in EdD programs throughout the dissertation writing process. I taught similar sections of introductory composition for three years at a liberal arts college In this role, I learned to teach writing as a process, provide effective, non-threatening feedback, conference with students, and utilize revision strategies to move students’ work forward. I came to dissertation consulting at City University (a pseudonym) during my second year of PhD study at the recommendation of the EdD program chair who matched my background in composition with a significant need for writing support for both EdD and PhD dissertators in the SOE. It demonstrates that even Research I institutions with strong SOEs enroll underprepared writers who need support at the dissertation stage
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