Impacting Education: Journal on Transforming Professional Practice

Completely Whole

Donna DeGennaro — 2025-04-24

This article explores the narratives of two doctoral candidates in a curriculum and instruction program, revealing their dissertation experiences after challenging conventional norms in their coursework. Through qualitative analysis, we identify themes of cultural authenticity, power of the academy, and theory vs. practice. These themes underscore the importance of resisting institutional pressures to maintain traditional structures and learning designs, allowing for innovative research processes. The students’ stories emphasize staying true to the transformative nature of their coursework and themselves. We conclude with recommendations for students and professors interested in re-envisioning the dissertation’s purpose and process.

Cultivating Change Agents through Effective Program Evaluation

Tiffany Karalis Noel — 2025-04-24

This article presents insights from X University’s inaugural EdD program, evaluating its curriculum, pedagogy, and innovations through an annual program evaluation. Designed for full-time professionals, this part-time, online program emphasizes interdisciplinary improvements to educational Problems of Practice (PoPs), aligned with the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED). The evaluation revealed students’ high satisfaction with faculty quality and program leadership. The cohort model's role in community building and the flipped defense model were highlighted as progressive educational approaches. Students appreciated the program's relevance to their career goals, with many aiming for academia or administration, while feedback suggested expanded course variety and increasingly flexible scheduling. A key finding is that traditional forms of program evaluation may not support the goals of innovative programs. This article, therefore, concludes with strategic recommendations for using the evaluation process as a core element for program enhancement, guided by its commitment to social justice and educational equity.

Differences between EdD and PhD Programs

Marisha Lamont–Manfre — 2025-04-24

The goal of this concurrent, equal status mixed methods study was to investigate the potential differences between EdD and PhD programs in the United States with the following overarching research question: Are there differences in EdD and PhD programs in schools that have both programs? Data were collected from 34 university websites where both a PhD and an EdD degree in leadership were available through a school of education. Results indicated statistically significant differences were found between EdD and PhD programs in regard to Total Credits t(66) = -2.05, p = .022, d = -0.5; Research Credits, t(50.38) = -5.38, p < .001, d = -1.32, and Culminating Projects, t(63) = -1.79, p = 0.039, d = -0.44. Qualitative analyses revealed similarities and differences between the programs. This study reinforces the concept of a practitioner degree for the EdD and the research / faculty degree for PhD.

Fostering Student Success Through Effective Mentorship

Rhia Moreno — 2025-04-24

This qualitative study explored the mentoring relationship between EdD students and their dissertation chairs who won the CPED Dissertation in Practice of the Year Award. Utilizing the CPED Mentoring and Advising Skills to frame the study, we interviewed 16 mentees and mentors. Thematic analysis pointed to broad mentorship themes of creating a culture of care, providing meaningful feedback, and modeling writing as a genre. This study has implications for practice for faculty chairing dissertation in practice, students, and doctoral program administrators.

Breaking the Silence

Dibett Lopez — 2025-04-24

Due to the competitive and inequitable structure of doctoral programs, there has been a rapid rise of mental and physical issues faced by students. In this article, I use autoethnography as a method to explore my experiences and their implications on my learning and wellbeing as an Afro-Latinx EdD student at a public university. Using "captured moments", a photography analogy for the experiences lived, I explore the depth and light each "captured moment" has created and/or has resulted in the ways in which I looked at the content and people I was exposed to within my program and as well as the ways in which my health was impacted. These experiences were then analyzed through liminality theory and Strong Black Woman (SBW) schema to support the impact of these experiences. The call to action provides direction for how educators and researchers can provide students with more supportive and equitable experiences that would provide for an increase of students seeking to obtain their EdD.

Promising Features of EdD Leadership Programs

Sandra Jones Legay — 2025-04-24

The EdD leadership degree is needed to provide future college or university presidents with the training and background needed to pursue and succeed in the presidential role and other senior-level leadership positions in educational institutions. Identifying promising features in educational leadership programs can help directors of programs design or improve programs to best support aspiring leaders in the field. Based on an exploratory narrative literature review and informal conversations with practitioners in the field, the following features were identified as promising practices in EdD leadership programs: (a) support through a cohort model, (b) flexibility via online, hybrid, and weekend or executive style program delivery, and (c) mentorship. The findings suggest that an EdD leadership program with a cohort structure provides students with a collegial community of learners who encourage persistence to program completion and support their learning. In addition, flexible online programs and course delivery options offer an avenue for students with complex lives to earn a doctoral degree. This flexibility is very important to students who are managing their families, work, and educational responsibilities. Finally, an EdD leadership program that includes mentorship enhances students both professionally and personally.

Barbara Dennis: Walking with Strangers

Bailey J. Bontrager — 2025-04-24

This book review critiques Barbara Dennis’s Walking with Strangers: Critical Ethnography and Educational Promise, which tells the story of her engagement with a midwestern school district that was experiencing challenges with the increase of their transnational population. Dennis’s portrayal is an intimate and thorough example of the emotional, personal, and methodological processes involved in conducting critical participatory ethnography. This review explores the chapters in the text as they provide insight to various components of the project and provides a discussion of the strengths and challenges presented within the book.

Challenges in (Re)designing EdD Programs: Supporting Change with Learning Cases

Siyuan Gu — 2025-04-24

This review assesses Dr. Jill Perry's (2023) text Challenges of (Re)Designing EdD Programs: Supporting Transformation Through Case Learning in terms of its relevance to its intended audience of educational practitioners and its contributions to the field. By spotlighting the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) -associated teaching cases, it examines each for insights into the redesign process and offers meaningful discussion questions for further reflection. Addressing challenges like equity integration, defining research roles, and managing program differences, Perry’s text assesses their impact on EdD program development. It emphasizes the need for cohesive, outcome-oriented program development and positions case-based earning as a practical tool for faculty development and for promoting critical thinking. The text urges readers to reflect on these cases and uses them as an instrument for fostering discussions on EdD program design challenges in an effort to ideally guide institutional transformation.

Building Teacher Capacity for Educating Students Living in Poverty

Jaime Hooper — 2025-04-24

Students living in poverty and/or experiencing childhood trauma consistently report suboptimal educational results nationwide. The primary focus of this improvement initiative was to build teacher capacity to understand their implicit bias and move from deficit to asset-based thinking in relation to students and families living in poverty. Employing Improvement Science Methodology at one rural elementary school, a 12-week, four-session professional learning module was delivered containing the following topics: teacher implicit bias and privilege; school discipline and special education data demonstrating disproportionate representation of students living in poverty; asset versus deficit thinking, Adverse Childhood Experiences and their impacts on education; and culturally responsive classroom practices. Findings demonstrated 13 out of 14 participants (92.86%) implemented new learning into classroom teaching practices yielding a 25% decline in referrals for special education testing for students living in poverty, and a 6.61% decline in out-of-class discipline for students living in poverty.

The Impact of a Diversity and Social Justice Course on a Higher Education Assessment Professional’s Practice

Jeremy P. Reich — 2025-04-24

This essay discusses the impact of a diversity and social justice course on the assessment philosophy and practice of an early-career higher education assessment professional. The author, who directs institutional assessment practices at a public 4-year institution in the northeastern United States and is pursuing an online doctorate in higher education, reflects on the impact of this course. The experience of the course prompted significant reflection on the author’s inherited privilege and the need to incorporate equity for social justice into their professional practice. This essay tracks the author's journey through this course from a self-described ally to an aspiring co-conspirator, reinforces the need to incorporate equity for social justice into higher education assessment practices, and argues for the inclusion of a diversity and social justice course as a standard offering in higher education doctoral programs.

Mapping AECT Standards Framework

Daisyane Barreto — 2025-04-24

Program alignment with professional standards ensures that students gain competency-based skills that can be transferred to the workplace environment. Employers continue to place a greater value on these skills. Establishing curriculum alignment with professional standards can assist with annual program evaluations, student learning outcomes, and competencies. This article focuses on aligning a graduate-level Instructional Technology program curriculum with the professional standards of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). Provus’ Discrepancy Evaluation model was implemented to identify gaps and adjustments to the program curriculum. The program evaluation assisted in identifying areas where the curriculum needed to be updated, coherence and organization needed to be adjusted in the program, and students and key stakeholders needed to be addressed. The recommendations and suggestions provided in this study can assist other programs in planning and implementing similar alignment processes, thereby contributing to the advancement of the understanding of assessment and evaluation practices in higher education.