Why did I decide on the Doctor of Education rather than a traditional Ph.D.?

scales weighing up Ed.D. or Ph.D.?

So this is a question I am often asked by people and I can understand that this must be confusing, as I was confused initially too.

I inquired about a traditional part-time Ph.D. through the business school at UWE and I was excited to be having conversations with potential supervisors that were helping to shape my research focus. I then met with the graduate school in the business school to find out more about the application process since I thought I had found a strong potential supervisor.

My meeting with the graduate school was fine but it didn't leave me feeling that I would be a suitable candidate. If anything, it made me feel that I wasn't making the right choice in applying. So I parked the Ph.D. idea again, although the niggle was still there.

Through my job I had a meeting with an academic in a different faculty about a work-related possible research project and while we chatted this academic mentioned that he decided against the traditional Ph.D. route and was more than halfway through his Doctor of Education Ed.D. He explained a bit about the Ed.D. and the more he chatted the better the course sounded, but I was concerned that my focus on marketing wouldn't be suitable for an education-focused research degree. I bit the bullet and emailed the programme leaders and arranged to meet and chat. If you don't ask you don't get, right?

https://courses.uwe.ac.uk/X90012/education-edd

I had an informal chat with the programme leaders who were welcoming, friendly and encouraging - the opposite of my experience with the graduate school in the business school. We chatted through my research ideas and my reasons for completing the course and after about 30 minutes I was encouraged to go home, have a think and then work on an application.

My main question in the meeting was what made the course different from a traditional Ph.D. and would I be able to shape my research focus to fit in with the course?

What makes the course different is the format and also the learning content. The Ed.D. is a four-six year part-time programme with the first two years being a taught element, similar to a masters course. 4 key modules are taught over the two years and these help the student learn about particular aspects of doing research, complete research for assignments that help shape the focus of the research for the thesis, and in these first two years, students are part of a cohort of anything up to around 12 students. After these two years, students submit their research proposal and once that's successful, they move into independent research focusing on their area of interest being guided by one or two supervisors.

Having been out of the classroom since 2004 I liked the idea of being part of a class to ease me back into studying. I liked the idea of having classmates to chat through studies with and I liked the idea that the four modules had assignments to build on study skills, improve writing, etc before actually tackling a 60,000-word thesis. I had heard that a Ph.D. can be a lonely journey and I was keen to study but worried about my abilities and lacked confidence in my study skills if I'm honest.

I submitted my application a few days later and was pleased to receive news that I was being asked in for an interview to make a final decision on my application. The interview was similar to the initial informal chat but with more structured questions to give the programme leaders an idea of my research ideas and my understanding of what the course will entail. I left the interview feeling happy with my performance and waited for the feedback.

Later that day, walking to lunch with my colleague I passed one of the programme leaders who let me know that I was successful in gaining a place on the course should I want it. I was so happy.

So how did my marketing focus fit in with the Ed.D. format?

During the chats with the programme leaders and with various academics that I work with, I quickly came to realize that what I like about marketing is how people react to marketing and how it makes people make decisions and purchase products. I am interested in people's reactions and thoughts. Peoples perceptions. What I really want to study is how university marketing is perceived by prospective students. By looking at perceptions, I would be able to fall into the realms of sociology and the functioning of human society and research could work within an Ed.D context.

As my research has developed I have found more and more that the sociologist hat really fits me well. I am still very much interested in people's perceptions, but through some of the reading I have done for the course, I have come to realize that I have an interest in much more than simply perception. Through later blog posts I will talk more about how my research is evolving and forming into something quite solid and really current.

If you have any questions about the Ed.D. then please do get in touch with me using the contact form at the bottom of the blog, or leave a comment.

Location: Bristol, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lecturing as a doctoral student

Image
  You may be aware that often, full-time PhD students are encouraged to teach on various programmes, predominantly to undergraduate students. This is an opportunity to both share aspects of their research and their point of view with others, as well as an opportunity to make some additional income on the side.  As a part-time EdD student, the same teaching opportunities don't appear to be as available. But as someone who is keen to build my academic experience as well as have an opportunity to talk about my research and share my thoughts, I wanted to have the option to deliver some sort of teaching.  I am lucky in that I have worked in Higher Education for a number of years, allowing me to build connections with numerous academics. Through these connections, I have openly talked about my interest in perhaps delivering guest lectures from an ethnographic perspective where I am able to bring theoretical concepts to life by using my own commercial work experiences as case st...
Read more

creative research methods

Image
When contemplating applying for a PhD I was pretty set on the fact that my research would have to be quantitive in terms of data-heavy, or qualitative where I only considered interviews as a source of data. Without being either of these, how could my research possibly contribute to existing knowledge and be of any value to both the academic and wider societies? Having been on my EdD course for almost two years I have been exposed to a wide range of methods for data collection and this has really inspired my thinking as I develop my own plans for my research. I am also in a lucky position to be working at a university where I interact with academics on a regular basis and I hear a lot about their research and the methods that they use in data collection and this, combined with my studies has really opened my eyes to vast opportunities available in conducting research. My most recent study-block on the EdD course introduced a number of methods for data collection and all of these methods...
Read more

Publicity Editor at Pubs and Publications

Image
As you may have gathered from the posts on here, I love learning the practical aspects of completing a doctorate successfully. I am interested in people and how they experience their PhD journey, the tools, tips and tricks that they employ to get them through each step of the process and succeed. One of the blogs I read to learn about other peoples aspects of PhD life is Pubs and Publications  and I find the posts there a real breath of fresh air. People write about their ups and downs of PhD life in a manner that feels therapeutic, humorous and that makes me want to read more of the posts. I reached out to them earlier this year and offered to contribute a guest post for them. I wasn't too sure if they would agree to my contribution and I was over the moon when they came back and said that they would love for me to write a post for them. So I wrote a post about how I juggle full-time work, part-time PhD, being a parent and all the rest of life and it was published early in May....
Read more