Impacting Education: Journal on Transforming Professional Practice

Erratum to

Suha Tamim, Rhonda Jeffries — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0400

The article metadata for Howard, J., Derk, K., & Colson , T. (2023). Let’s Talk: Critical Participatory Action Research and Improvement Science-Guided Research Comparing Our Approaches to Improve Education. Impacting Education: Journal on Transforming Professional Practice, 8(1), 9–17. https://doi.org/10.5195/ie.2023.285 listed the authors in an incorrect order and contained an incorrect email address of author Joy Howard. The correct order of the authors is Joy Howard, Kim Derk, and Tori Colson. The email address for Joy Howard is howardj@wcu.edu.

Part One of the Themed Issue on Reimagining Research Methods Coursework for the Preparation of Scholar-Practitioners

Sarah Capello, Maxwell Yurkofsky, Edwin Nii Bonney — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Ongoing efforts to distinguish the EdD from the PhD as a professional practice doctorate have important implications for how research methodology courses are designed, sequenced, and taught in CPED-inspired EdD programs. Currently, there is much debate and little consensus as to what the purpose and outcomes of these courses should be and how the courses might differ from traditional doctoral-level methods preparation. In this first installment of the themed issue on redesigning research methods for CPED-inspired EdD programs, EdD faculty and students share their current redesign work and experiences implementing revised methodology courses as part of larger, practitioner-oriented program revisions.

Reimagining Research Courses for Scholar Practitioners

Angela Hooser, Kimberly Evert, Kevin Krahehbuhl — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0400

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 on and change the traditional space of our advanced qualitative and quantitative method courses. We share our journey from conceptualization to teaching what began, but did not conclude, as two distinct courses including the challenges, successes, and subsequent strategies used in our teaching and development. We reflect on the tensions that arose from our preexisting beliefs about research and the needs articulated by our candidates as well as our navigation of those needs.

Preparing Scholarly Practitioners to Use Improvement Science

Noelle A. Paufler — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0400

While doctoral leadership programs have widely adopted Improvement Science (IS) as a signature pedagogy, few studies have examined how to best equip doctoral students with the knowledge and research skills they need to utilize IS in practice. More specifically, research is needed to determine the most effective and meaningful pedagogy for preparing doctoral students to understand, analyze, and apply statistical theory and quantitative research designs in coursework and as part of the IS Dissertation in Practice (DiP). This essay focuses on the systematic, iterative, and reflective approach of one faculty member to develop and refine a Doctor of Education program’s primary applied quantitative methods course to help students across three cohorts develop the theoretical and practical knowledge and skills they need to lead change.

Developing Leadership for Improvement

Maritza Lozano, Leyda W. Garcia, Carlos Sandoval, Jr. — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Improvement and action-oriented research approaches make iterative testing to learn about systems and adaptive change a central practice. As the need to develop the field’s capacity to improve grows, so does the need to develop leaders’ capacity for leading and conducting iterative cycles of testing. The present study reveals how EdD. candidates learn to investigate and specify problems and aims, develop the capacity to lead, and conduct iterative cycles of testing in schools and school districts. We draw on the implementation of core learning activities in one Educational Leadership Doctoral Program employing improvement science as a signature methodology. Findings suggest shifting candidate orientations, growth in the capacity to engage in iterative cycles for improvement of problem definition and actionable steps, and the ability to garner collegial engagement in improvement and iterative testing. Implications highlight the importance of designing and structuring learning activities beyond those that exist in traditional research methods courses to ensure adequate candidate preparation.

Research Methods Courses Redesigned for an EdD in Instructional and Performance Technology

Holley Handley, Nancy B. Hastings — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0400

This essay describes the design, and subsequent redesign, of the research methods courses included in an Instructional and Performance Technology (IPT) EdD program at a regional comprehensive university in the southeast United States. The program under examination was developed based on the principles of the Carnegie Project for the Education Doctorate (CPED) and research and best practices aligned with the practice of performance improvement. The curriculum includes three research methods courses. The first introduces the students to the principles of action research as applied to the analysis of performance problems in organizational settings. The second addresses instrumentation and data collection processes used in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research, and the third examines analyzing and reporting quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research. Collectively these courses provide students with the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to serve as scholarly practitioners, examining any type of problem of practice in any organizational setting.

Honor, Build, and Restructure

Linsay DeMartino, Dianne Gardner Renn — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0400

School leaders enrolled in CPED-influenced and practitioner focused doctoral programs require specific research-based skills and knowledge that bridge both educational scholarship and practice in order to be relevant for both their dissertation process and school practice. In doing so, these doctorate in education (EdD) programs must critically exam their qualitative research methods courses to honor the professional practice of their adult learners and usher in innovative, collaborative, transformative, and participatory research design courses to meet this demand. As such we present our methodological course sequence built on principles of adult learning and a signature pedagogy, the first course is a reimagination of the qualitative research course and the second is a reconceptualized transformative capstone.

The Tension Between Rigor and Relevance

Christine M. Neumerski — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0400

This essay examines the tension between rigor and relevance in a newly designed EdD program in School System Leadership in a Research 1 institution. After a three-year redesign of this program that prepares students to become superintendents, our faculty continue to wrestle with questions around how to make methodology coursework meaningful, impactful, timely, and useful. This article examines the perspective of one of the EdD faculty leading the redesign of the program and concludes with lingering questions and tensions around best practices.

Inquiry as Practice

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0400

As faculty of an educational leadership doctoral program (EdD) aligned with the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) principles, we acknowledge the importance of inquiry to develop scholarly practitioners. Applying the tenet of Inquiry as Practice, our EdD faculty critically examined the doctoral curriculum to explore ways to effectively prepare our doctoral students to learn and apply research methodology meaningfully. This essay details how the review of our research curriculum led to a pedagogical and curriculum redesign of our research seminar series. This revised research seminar series culminates in a course offered every fall/spring semester in the final two years of the program and intentionally has different faculty members teaching each course. We have utilized a backward design to create the themes/content of these seminar courses to better prepare students for their dissertation research.

Rigor and Relevance in Research Methods

Carey Borkoski, Jeannie Chipps, Brianne Roos — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 00:00:00 -0400

EdD students represent diverse individuals with established professional identities who enroll in doctoral programs seeking relevant, useable content. Instructors and program directors must find ways to incorporate rigor and relevance into the readings, assessments, and training for EdD students. This essay explores the evolution of research methods courses in an online education doctoral program. Hochbein and Perry (2013) noted that “research training need not be diluted, but rather tailored to the specific needs of scholarly practitioners” (p.182). Our narrative integrates the unique perspectives of a former EdD research methods faculty member and two recent alumni to describe one program’s efforts to maintain the rigor of doctoral research methods courses and better align student experiences to their needs and professional context. Relying on research literature and experiential evidence, we offer a rich recounting of a rationale for change and how these adjustments contributed to scholarly practitioner training and research journeys. The essay identifies requisite knowledge of scholarly practitioners and describes the integration of learning opportunities across the courses.