ABOUT THE COURSE

The Doctor of Education (EdD) has been specifically designed to meet the needs of educational professionals in teaching, management or administration in a range of sectors. Students recruited to the programme come from occupations such as teaching, advisory roles, police work, social work and in the health sector, and often but not always hold senior positions. Common to them all is a desire to pursue an area of research related to and drawing on their professional work, and with the aim of creating new knowledge, applications and understanding that will bring both personal benefits and for the wider professional community.

There is a strong emphasis on individualised learning and personal critical reflection related to professional identities, values and contexts. The programme provides a structured environment in which students engage at an advanced level with a range of academic and professional issues relevant to their own practice. The learning and teaching strategy seeks to develop the three key skills of independent learning, independent research, and sustained critical and self-reflexive analysis integrating academic and professional considerations.

The programme is divided into two parts. In the first of these, students undertake three ‘strands’ of taught study (equalling 40 credits each). This is followed by the writing of a substantial research proposal (60 credits), which forms a good foundation for the supervised thesis in part 2, on a research question broadly related to professional practice.

Curriculum Overview

Part 1 – Year 1

• Engaging with Research – Knowledge, Truth and Values in Research
• Yourself as Researcher – Professional Identity and Values
• Research Skills and Methods
• Research Proposal

Part 1 – Year 2

• Engaging with Research – Research, Policy and Practice
• Yourself as Researcher – Practitioner Research in Context
• Research Skills and Methods (continued)
• Research Proposal (continued)

Part 2 – Years 3 & 4

• Dissertation phase
• 50-60,000 word dissertation to submit

Teaching and Research

Part 1 of the doctorate is taught over 4 weekends per year, in February, March, September and December. Each weekend begins around 1pm Friday, and continues until 5pm Saturday, with a mix of interactive workshop and seminar discussions around key readings and tasks. Admission to the Professional Doctorate is limited to a small cohort each year, and sharing your independent reading and professional expertise is an important part of the learning experience. All of the modules and assessments are designed to support you in the development of your independent research proposal.