SMACKtivism: A Program Redesign so Good, You Won’t Know What Hit You

This essay describes the context, mission, guiding principles, signature pedagogies, curriculum, and anticipated benefits and limitations of our newly designed EdD in Learning and Teaching in Social Contexts. As we prepare to launch our new program (pending approval), our key development efforts are focused on implementing leading-edge coursework centering on problems of practice through a blend of online interactions and applied, real-world experiences. Our primary objective is to equip scholar-practitioners with the expertise to initiate and sustain systematic approaches to transformative and justice-oriented improvement within their local educational communities, both during and following their time in the program.

Approaching EdD Program Redesign as a Problem of Practice

As members of the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED), universities across the United States are restructuring EdD programs to better prepare professional practitioners with the practical skills and theoretical knowledge needed to improve the educational environments that they serve. The hallmark of these programs is often the dissertation in practice, a scholarly investigation within which students define a problem of practice and then systematically test solutions to that problem. In this study, we investigate the experiences of university faculty participating in the redesign of an Educational Leadership EdD program who approach the redesign as a problem of practice. Root causes of identified program issues are presented in addition to the changes implemented in the redesigned program to improve upon the problem of practice.

Facilitating and Supporting EdD Students’ Scholar Practitioner Writing as an Epistemological Tool

Becoming adept at crafting scholarly writing is an important aspect of a doctoral student’s development. Presented in this article is an EdD course, embedded writing scaffold that engages students and faculty to develop students’ scholarly inquiry projects. That scaffold is the Applied Inquiry Plan (AIP). The AIP creates a programmatic pathway to guide a Dissertation in Practice. Working to improve the quality and value of scholar practitioner writing parallels and draws from efforts in the biomedical fields to develop writing guidelines that impact the quality and value of practice. Creating and using the AIP provides opportunities for broad discussion of how to engage EdD students to view their writing as an epistemological tool. Discussed is the AIP impact on EdD program redesign and improvement.

Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership Redesign: Utilizing a Multicriteria Framework

The development of educational leaders, who have a profound influence in shaping a culture of organizational learning; ethical community engagement; advocacy for diversity, equity and inclusion; and theory to practice solutions, is the aim of redesign efforts in one educational leadership (EDLE) program in the United States. These ideas, grounded in a multicriteria framework, are reified in the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate’s (CPED) Principles and Design Concepts and reinforced by the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) criteria. Yet, right from the beginning, faculty struggled with ideological differences and logistical challenges. Without the dean and department chair’s collaborative, visionary leadership and support of key faculty, efforts to redesign the program would have been stifled. We argue that the multicriteria framework, underscoring the importance of collaborative leadership, is the cornerstone of the education doctorate program redesign. The article’s contributions are intended to inform the planning, implementation, and evaluation of this program redesign and its impact.

The Correlation between Self-Efficacy and Time to Degree Completion of Educational Leadership Doctoral Students

Aim/Purpose: This study examined an Ed.D. program redesign to address time to degree completion. The aim was to emphasize the need to improve students’ academic writing and embody a scholarly practitioner approach to research. Background: Doctoral programs have the highest attrition of graduate programs, with almost half of the students taking six to seven years to complete. Methodology: An ex-post-facto correlational research design examined self-efficacy and educational leadership doctoral students perceived versus actual program progression. This was statistically determined through Pearson’s correlation coefficients and a t-test analysis. Contribution: This study provides other doctoral programs who are struggling with time to degree completion a model to consider as they contemplate a program redesign. Findings: Ed.D. students in the 2014 and 2015 cohorts reported high self-efficacy (3.62 and 3.57 respectively, out of 4.00). There was a statistically significant difference in the number of defenses completed per semester based on the program redesign. Recommendations for Practitioners: Ed.D. programs should consider using a scholarly practitioner approach. This focus may lead to faster rates of degree completion and better prepare students to solve problems of practice in their practitioner setting. Recommendation for Researchers: While the results are promising as to expediting time to degree completion, like most doctoral programs it does not seem to impact overall completion rates of the program as a whole, thus, warranting further research. Impact on Society: Expediting time-to-completion enables students to graduate sooner. This will yield cost savings to the student, free up faculty resources, and most importantly prepare students to sooner serve as scholarly practitioners. Future Research: Future research should continue to examine time to degree completion, as well as students’ lived experiences and examine how those shape doctoral students’ efforts and abilities in their Ed.D. work from start to program completion.

Creating an EdD Structure, Program, and Process Fulfilling the Needs of Doctoral Candidates and the Communities They Will Serve

This chapter describes the program redesign, development and essential components of Loyola University Chicago's EdD principal preparation program for the Chicago Leadership Collaborative (CLC) providing a pipeline of candidates to be transformational principals within the Chicago Public Schools. This redesigned EdD focuses on creating communities of positive practice comprised of scholar- practitioners who create disciplines of inquiry that positively impact student, faculty, parent, and community outcomes while contributing to the knowledge base of preparing future educational leaders. In its third year of implementation with 30 candidates in the program, lessons learned from this program redesign will be detailed. Using the foundational principles from this new program redesign process, in conjunction with dissertation completion and graduate outcome data from Loyola's traditional EdD program, this article will explore next steps in the EdD program development process within the reality of rising expectations and continuous legislative change within the state of Illinois.