Doctor of Education, Educational Practice (EdD)

Bridge Theory and Practice with Scholarship

The Doctor of Education in Educational Practice is a doctoral degree intended for practitioners. Areas of study available are the themes around which learning communities are formed. Members of the learning communities advance through the program as a cohort in three to three-and-one-half years. The program is 80 credits, which includes the ability to apply up to 33 credits from your Master’s degree or Education Specialist degree. A Dissertation in Practice (8 credits) is the capstone.

Why Choose the Ed.D.?

The Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree is a program that prepares practitioners to be leaders who use practical wisdom, professional skills, and knowledge of educational literature to address the high-leverage problems of practice facing their area of education. The program applies an Inquiry as Practice model of scholarship. Graduates gain the ability to use data to inform decision-making and enhance their practice by gathering, organizing, judging, aggregating, and analyzing situations, literature, and data. The intention is to prepare scholarly practitioners in their professional work.

The curriculum of the Doctor of Education degree is intended to prepare practicing professionals to transform both their practice and the field by working in community, just as practitioners collaborate with key stakeholders to address complex problems of practice. Students are admitted to the degree program and simultaneously to a learning community of practice formed around a theme. The learning community and a mentor team of faculty and practitioners stay together and work together throughout the program by meeting in a learning community seminar every semester. The skills to work collaboratively to develop, test, and advance innovative solutions to high-leverage problems of practice are fostered throughout the program.

In addition to the thematic learning community of practice format, the curriculum features Laboratories of Practice and a Dissertation in Practice as culminating activities. The Laboratories of Practice take the doctoral studies away from the University campus and to a context where theory, inquiry, and practice can intersect and the implementation of practice can be measured. The Dissertation in Practice allows the learning community to address a high leverage problem of practice through collaborative and connected work beyond what a single individual could do alone. Individuals contribute work that feeds into group work. The Dissertation of Practice is characterized by generative impact.

The University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Education is a member of the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate, a national group of over fifty universities re-designing and re-orienting the Doctor of Education degree as a program distinct from Doctor of Philosophy in Education degree programs. Our program reflects our commitment to the work of the Carnegie Project and its guiding principles.

The Doctor of Education degree builds upon your previous Master’s and / or Education Specialist degrees with continuous learning community seminars, core courses reflecting the Carnegie Project guiding principles, and community-based inquiry and tool courses. The program is 80 credits, which includes the ability to apply up to 33 credits from your Master’s degree or Education Specialist degree. A Dissertation in Practice (8 credits) is the capstone. The program is completed in three to three-and-a-half years.