Impacting Education: Journal on Transforming Professional Practice

Designing, Developing, and Sustaining Doctoral Programs in a Post-Pandemic Age

Rebecca Harper — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0500

This special themed issue of Impacting Education, Designing, Developing, and Sustaining Doctoral Programs in a Post-Pandemic Age, focuses on ways in which educators have used the pandemic as an opportunity in their doctoral programs for reimagination and reflection. Although this was a disruptive time in education, it also allowed time for transformations and opportunities within doctoral programs. Instead of ignoring the challenges presented by the pandemic, the contributors in this issue used their observations and experiences for improvement and refinement, and emerged from the pandemic with programs that were more robust and reflected the needs of their students.

Transformative Learning and Professional Advancement During an EdD Program

Jessica A. Marotta — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0500

The purpose of the study was to examine education doctoral student perspectives on their experience of enrolling in a fully online EdD program during a global pandemic and achieving career advancement during their enrollment through the lens of transformative learning theory. A qualitative study of 12 participants was conducted to examine in what ways the pandemic influenced their decision to enroll in an online doctorate program, in ways their thinking progressed throughout the program, and the factors affecting their decision to take on a career advancement while enrolled in the program. The findings indicate that there were elements of transformative learning that occurred for many of the participants. Faculty teaching in doctorate programs are encouraged to explore how they might foster transformative learning experiences for their students.

Developing and Sustaining Northeastern’s EdD Program During and Post Pandemic

Cherese Childers-McKee, Sara Ewell, Joan Giblin, Joseph McNabb, Melissa Parenti — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Northeastern University’s EdD faculty faced unique challenges during the pandemic and racial reckoning following George Floyd’s murder. During this period, however, we found opportunities to adapt and improve our program. We prioritized compassion and connection. We made significant strides in curriculum development through design and implementation of three new concentrations. We focused all program elements on how social justice works in a variety of educational settings. We altered our approach to data collection and doctoral supervision. In so doing, we were able to maintain consistency for our students and develop a closer bond with our faculty colleagues.

Reimagining the EdD in a Time When the Future of Public Schooling is at Stake

Laura Flores Shaw, Juliana Paré-Blagoev, Laura Quaynor — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Given the current tumultuous education climate, we as EdD faculty seek to engage in critical reflection and reimagine the affordances—opportunities for action (Gee, 2008; Gibson, 2014)—provided by our program structures and our teaching practices. In this article, three faculty members (including one department chair and one interim program director) among the many who actively engaged in reimagining an established online EdD program to be launched Fall 2023 discuss their critical self-reflection experiences. Specifically, we discuss how our backgrounds and/or the current socio-historical climate influences our thinking as we, along with our colleagues, have grappled with redesigning an applied EdD program.

From Reacting to Re-imagining

Amy Markos, Ray Buss, Josephine Marsh — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0500

In this practice-based essay, we illustrated how our program, a charter member of The Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) and a recipient of a CPED Program of the Year Award in 2018, has moved from reacting to pandemic-era needs, to reflecting on pandemic-era adaptations, to re-imagining our EdD program. Focusing on three areas: program growth, changes to students’ professional contexts, and student well-being, we have reflected on our pandemic-era experiences and how we have drawn upon them as we re-imagined and advanced our program. We have included reflective questions for program coordinators and faculty members, with the hope that the information we have shared can help others consider how they might re-imagine aspects of their programs.

Pivoting from Problems to Possibilities in Response to Dual Pandemics

Jarrod E. Druery, Melissa M. Jones, Brandelyn Tosolt — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0500

The year 2020 brought not only the COVID-19 pandemic but also a wave of racial injustice, which impacted many in the U.S. and beyond. Combined, these phenomena have been characterized as dual pandemics, which introduced new demands that forced faculty to redesign aspects of their doctoral programs to ensure sustainability during the pandemic and post-pandemic era. The purpose of this essay is to highlight changes we made to sustain our EdD program during and post dual pandemics. We achieve this by employing Ginwright’s (2022) four pivots and brown’s (2017) emergent leadership as a framework and to conceptualize how we transitioned from viewing the events of 2020 as problems to embracing the possibilities they offered for the present and future of our EdD program. Practical implications and recommendations for this work are discussed to offer EdD faculty ways to design, develop, and sustain their doctoral programs in the post-pandemic era.

Mechanisms for Change

Nicholas E. Husbye, Tachier Rezac, Stephanie Wessels , Guy Trainin — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0500

While the COVID-19 pandemic forced the rapid development of adaptations in educational systems, these innovations often disappeared as schools returned to so-called pre-pandemic normalcy. This essay explores the role of the Education Doctorate (EdD) programs in equipping candidates with the necessary tools to foster sustained change within their institutions, even in the face of limited power. Drawing from the metaphor of the Rider and the Elephant, this essay proposes specific practices within the EdD framework to support students in appealing to both logical reasoning and emotional engagement to drive change. By aligning the Rider (conscious thinking) with the Elephant (unconscious emotions) and creating a conducive path (environment), lasting behavioral change can be achieved. Additionally, the essay highlights the importance of recognizing the interplay between educational research and the practical realities of classroom instruction, emphasizing how EdD graduates can bridge the gap between education research claims and local education system needs.

A Model for Program Improvement Using Reflections by EdD Scholars About Adaptation During a Pandemic Time

Jacqueline Hawkins, Monica Martens — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0500

The results of a reflective survey, used for program evaluation, demonstrate how EdD scholars used their learning about Improvement Science as an insightful lifeline and for practical guidance within their professional practice in an uncertain time. Scholars imparted valuable information to EdD faculty about the strains and challenges they were under. Faculty, in turn, enhanced their choice of content and approaches to teaching about how to manage actionable change and becoming a more reflective and resilient practitioner. In CPED-influenced programs such as ours, this exchange of learning is ongoing and natural, as scholars pitch up problems of practice in need of immediate progress and improvement—sharing insights into strategies (successful or failed)—with faculty. Program learning and enhancements, in light of our students' lived experience and learnings, are discussed. We conclude with guidance about tools and procedures to navigate turbulence in educational systems.

The Architecture of the Unknown

Chery L. Lucarelli, Amy L. Murzyn, Matthew J. Ridenour, Neil B. Witikko — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Beginning in the summer of 2019, the College of St. Scholastica endeavored to build a flexible, adaptable EdD program grounded in the guiding principles of CPED. This meant establishing a welcoming and safe program dedicated to cultivating justice-minded change makers. It also meant constructing a curriculum that would accommodate differing student backgrounds, be responsive to fluctuating consumer demands, and function as context-inclusive in an ever-evolving and intersecting space. While this alone was certainly a challenge, we did not anticipate that a global pandemic would present the most significant test of what we had created. To accomplish the aforementioned goals, the program architecture was dependent on the following structural considerations: a broadening of the target participant profile to include students across various social sectors; the use of design thinking as an asset in supporting innovation, creativity and flexibility; the inclusion of credit-bearing “third-place” courses intended to provide open-ended space and place for community building and reflective, intentional action; and an approach to course design that encouraged risk-taking by students with a focus on cultivating mindsets and skills around equity and social justice. None of these attributes on their own provided total protection from seismic societal, cultural or market shifts. Collectively, however, they offered a unique environment for the culturing of a particular type of doctoral experience, unique in its elasticity compared to more traditional, inflexible designs. This essay details the ways in which we attempted to create an inclusive, innovative, flexible structure, as validated (and challenged) by the COVID-19 pandemic.

From Room to Zoom

Enda Donlon, Fiona King — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0500

In early 2020, the introduction of COVID-19 restrictions meant that doctoral programmes which depended on face-to-face models for teaching, learning, and interaction needed to quickly reconsider their established practices. Of particular concern was the impact of pandemic restrictions upon the development of a sense of community among doctoral scholars. This article considers the experiences, opinions, and perceptions of one cohort of students regarding the development and facilitation of a sense of community in their professional doctorate programme at a time of unparalleled restrictions around in-person congregation. The findings indicate that students were predominantly positive about both student-led and staff-led initiatives to foster and maintain a sense of community, with the strongest sense of community occurring at the specialism level. Arising from these findings, the article reflects broadly on the effectiveness and value of these community-building activities and their continued relevance for subsequent iterations of the programme in the post-pandemic near-future.

(Re)designing a CPED-Oriented EdD Program to Improve its Emphasis on Equity in a Post Pandemic World

Henry Tran, Kathleen Cunningham, Suzy Hardie, Peter Moyi, Era Roberts — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0500

This paper focuses on the Education Systems Improvement EdD program (EDSI) at the University of South Carolina and how the program faculty utilize the signature methodology of the program, improvement science, towards its improvement efforts towards enhancing its equity focus, especially post-pandemic. We utilize the framework of improvement science including tools such as gap analysis, program evaluations, empathy interviews, and focus groups to better understand the problem and best design the appropriate improvement efforts. Broadly, three program improvement foci were identified for the improvement arc: program purpose, curricular design, and continuous improvement processes. Findings from this study provide details about program improvement efforts in improving an EdD program’s equity focus post-pandemic, in a particular setting. In the spirit of continuous improvement, this work is never done. It will be forwarded by follow-up improvement endeavors and activities.