Rubrics (e.g., Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) rubrics) that measure specific skills exist, and researchers have demonstrated their benefits; however, most of them were designed for use with undergraduate students. Although some rubrics have been created to assess dissertations and oral defenses, few have been…

More and more empirical studies address doctoral candidates' health. Yet, the mechanisms linking supervision and doctoral candidates' health often remain unclear. We start to fill this research gap with classifications of supervisors produced by latent class analysis, which were introduced into structural equation models with motivation towards…

This essay discusses the emergence of the program evaluation dissertation in our doctoral program as the preferred dissertation in practice (DiP) option. We also outline important considerations that must be reviewed with students when considering this approach. Our students are professional educational leaders in the settings where they conduct…

The CPED Framework (CPED, 2022) envisions the EdD as a professionally-oriented alternative to the PhD. Within the framework, two professional aims are proposed: stewardship and scholarly practice. In this essay, I distinguish between the two terms, exploring how Erving Goffman's (1986) concept of frame analysis can be a useful approach to…

Purpose: Expanding on Harris and Sinclair (2014, p. 5) claim that "the writing of a play is an act of inquiry", this paper aims to consider the joyful entanglements, messiness and friction-led use of creative methods within the context of a PhD in education studies. Design/methodology/approach: Amplifying the voices of both doctoral…

The doctorate forms the basis for academic careers and the regeneration of academia, and has increasingly become important for other sectors of society. The latter is reflected in efforts on institutional, national as well as supranational levels to change and adapt the doctoral degree to new expectations. As doctoral education is embedded in…

This paper offers a meta-analysis scoping study of doctoral dissertations completed in the last 20 years in one doctoral programme of Educational Leadership (EL) at a higher education institution in Texas, aiming at identifying topical foci, epistemology, methodology and main themes. Therefore, we systematically collected, documented, securitised…

A qualitative descriptive approach was followed in the research, starting with a theoretical conceptualization of scholar activism within doctoral education as a basis for further inquiry. Seventeen doctoral candidates described how they conceptualized and applied the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate's (CPED) Framework for the Emerging…

EdD programs affiliated with the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate encourage dissertations in practice (DiPs) focused on equity, social justice, and transformative practice. Conversations in our program revealed surface-level or late-stage social justice connections in our students' DiPs. Therefore, inspired by an existing framework that…

We share our experiences with the doctoral study process from the views of both students and professors. In a linear fashion, we offer our perspectives on the various decision points and pain points inherent in the modern doctoral dissertation, with an eye toward the strategies, resources, and personal touches that made it work. We conclude with…

Practitioner-focused educational doctoral programs have grown substantially in recent years. Dissertations in Practice (DiPs), which are the culminating research report and evaluation method in these programs, differ from traditional PhD dissertations in their focus on addressing a problem of practice and on connecting theories with practice. As…

The thesis by publication (TBP)--a collection of standalone articles aimed at publication and accompanied by an explanatory narrative--has grown in popularity over the last two decades. Although research on the TBP is beginning to emerge, it is thus far fragmented. We carried out a scoping review of the literature on the TBP for the years…

This essay shares the ongoing efforts of faculty in one EdD program to embrace applied research methodologies and the shifts made in research coursework to support our doctoral candidates as they explore problems of practice. Framed by third space theory, our redesign work is positioned as the lived experience through which we were able to reflect…

This essay describes the development and implementation of the redesigned Doctor of Education program at Northeastern University. In our new model, students implement and evaluate the effectiveness of their change work while enrolled in our program. Our intent in moving from a traditional model to our alternative model was to focus on providing…

This article presents a method to help PhD candidates in the implementation of Design-Based Research (DBR). It focuses on a process and a set of guides designed to accompany doctoral candidates in the different stages of their thesis. It also proposes a tenth principle concerning the definition of indicators used to drive the thesis. Evaluation is…