The professional doctorate

Citation

Taylor, P.G.S.a.D.R.T. (2014), "The professional doctorate", Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, Vol. 4 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-03-2014-0008

The professional doctorate

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning, Volume 4, Issue 2

Welcome to this special issue of Higher Education Skills and Work-based Learning dedicated to the professional doctorate. This issue has emerged from collaboration across borders during the International Conference on Doctoral Education that took place at the University of Central Florida, USA during April 2013.

The doctorate is the highest level of academic qualification and is recognised internationally as an award of academic excellence. Traditionally, the title of the doctoral award has been PhD (Doctor of Philosophy), largely considered to be the preparation for a career in research or academia (Bourner et al., 2001). Depending upon the institution and discipline the PhD is completed through three to seven years full-time study, often immediately after completion of a first degree or master's. However, many universities now offer an alternative form of doctoral qualification aimed at experienced individuals who prefer to follow a professional or practice-based doctoral route, known as the professional doctorate. This is work-based learning at the highest possible academic level, and, as with much work-based learning, the professional doctorate can be misunderstood, misinterpreted, considered to be not "real" higher education, or "PhD-lite" (Shulman et al., 2006, p. 27). Such perceptions have emerged due to the lack of consistency in structure and expectations for completion of the professional doctorate. In this issue we aim to explore some of the key issues and dispel some of the myths that have emerged from the growth of the relatively new form of doctorate education with thought provoking articles across academic disciplines from the UK and USA.

The USA was ahead of other countries in the development of profession-specific doctorates. Harvard University made the first award of what we would recognise as a "modern" professional doctorate (Doctor of Education, EdD) in 1921 - around the same time that the first PhD was awarded in the UK by the Oxford University (Simpson, 1983). The first professional doctorate (again, an EdD) was offered in the UK in 1992 at the University of Bristol (Westcott, 1997). Other profession-specific routes followed soon after, such as the Doctor of Engineering (EngD) and the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA).

Since the early 1990s there has been a growth in the professional doctorates awarded by Universities, particularly in the UK (Bourner et al., 2001), USA, and Australia (UKCGE, 2011). With an established basis for professional doctorates and with many universities offering a qualification of this nature, an increased momentum in expansion is being experienced. The accelerated design and implementation of professional doctorates is due partly to changing perceptions about the role of the university in society. The relationship between the university, government, and industry is changing from that of existing in separate silos to one of increasing inter-dependence and mutual benefit. Industries are seeking graduates who not only know, but can also apply, high-level academic knowledge to improve workplace outcomes, and governments as funders are holding universities accountable for workplace impact (Davies et al., 2001). When universities are engaged to produce economic development through academic research and the production of new knowledge, all three entities benefit (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff, 2001). This model can be mapped onto the professional doctorate, which focuses on the relationships among the university, industry (or the workplace), and the profession (Maxwell, 2003), and is becoming increasingly well understood by the academic community (Green and Powell, 2007).

Current developments are taking the concept of the professional doctorate one stage further. Early professional doctorates tended to adopt an award title that referred to the particular disciplinary approach, for example, EdD and DEng. Indeed, many of these awards continue to flourish; but there has also been the emergence of so-called second-generation (Maxwell, 2003) and third-generation (Stephenson et al., 2006) professional doctorates which grew out of the transdiciplinary, negotiated model of work-based learning that developed during the 1990s (Osborne et al., 1990, as cited in UKCGE, 2011). These are usually referred to as "generic" professional doctorates and are open to individuals from all areas of professional practice. They tend to be multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary in nature. The thrust of the generic professional doctorate is the development of professional practice within a real world context, taking into account all of the ambiguities, issues, complexities, and difficulties which this implies (Fulton et al., 2013). They differ from the more established professional doctorates in that they tend not to be based in a specific profession or occupational area. Instead, the focus is defined by the candidate's particular context and area of activity, which may be within a particular profession, or alternatively may be more individual in nature (Costley and Stephenson, 2008).

Generic professional doctorates are concerned with professionals developing their expertise to doctoral level by working in partnership with a university to develop and produce new knowledge and novel approaches within the workplace, that is "becoming researching professionals" (Fulton et al., 2013, p. 25). Whilst economic regeneration is not an explicit aim of the professional doctorate the work involved will, by definition, be of benefit to the sponsoring organisation. The professional doctorate is a vehicle which draws together state of the art professional practice with relevant academic theory, to create solutions for problems and the introduction of change within the candidate's own workplace (Maxwell, 2003).

Programmes by their very nature are inter-disciplinary and recognise that real world problems inhabit a dynamic, multi-faceted, and complex space. However, the work-based nature of the professional doctorate can present problems for those who are perhaps better acquainted with traditional models of doctorate study. Therefore, in this special edition of Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning, the research and experience of some of those already established in this field are shared in the hope that the issue will inspire those who have not yet ventured into the professional doctorate landscape and encourage those who may be championing their own programmes.

In our first paper Tom Bourner and Penny Simpson consider the pedagogical demands of the modern professional doctorate and the extent to which action learning meets these demands.

The next two papers discuss the development of the "researching professional"; Ray Buss and colleagues present a view from the USA, exploring the development of students’ identities as learners, leaders, and action researchers on an innovative EdD programme. Vanja Orlans offers a UK perspective of the development of the researching professional psychological therapist, considers the challenge to the identity of the candidates, and offers a practical discussion of the curriculum design issues involved in ensuring that the programme meets doctoral level standards whilst also satisfying the demands of a professional body.

Swapna Kumar then provides a systematic approach to the assessment impact by measuring candidates’ professional growth and their application of programme content in their professional practice.

Case studies of first-hand experiences in completing a professional doctorate in contrasting professions are presented in the last two papers. Martin Kettle first describes his transition from professional to researching professional in the important and often very difficult field of child protection. Using Fine's (1994) concept of "working the hyphen" (pp. 70-82) he describes how he managed the process of working across the border of practitioner and researcher during his doctoral programme. Jolanta Jagiello continues this theme as she describes her DProf by Public Works. She considers the inter-professional and trans-disciplinary approach she took, and examines the process undertaken to produce a self-reflexive and self-positioning statement reflecting on over ten years of independent curatorial practice of public art exhibitions.

Professor Gail Sanders

University of Sunderland, Sunderland, UK

Dr Rosemarye T. Taylor

University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA

References

Bourner, T., Bowden, R. and Laing, S. (2001), "Professional doctorates in England", Studies in Higher Education, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 65-83

Costley, C. and Stephenson, J. (2008), "Building doctorates around individual candidates: professional extension at the highest levels", in Boud, D. and Lee, A. (Eds), Changing Practices of Doctoral Education, Routledge, London, pp. 171-186

Davies, J., Hides, M.T. and Casey, S. (2001), "Leadership in higher education", Total Quality Management, Vol. 12 Nos 7-8, pp. 1025-1030

Etzkowitz, H.L. and Leydesdorff, L. (2001), Universities and the Global Knowledge Economy: A Triple Helix of University-Industry-Government Relations, Continuum, Londres

Fine, M. (1994), "Working the hyphens: reinventing self and others in qualitative research", in Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y. (Eds), Handbook of Qualitative Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 70-82

Fulton, J., Kuit, J., Sanders, G. and Smith, P. (2013), The Professional Doctorate, Palgrave Mcmillan, York

Green, H. and Powell, S.D. (2007), The Doctorate Worldwide, Open University, Buckingham

Maxwell, T.W. (2003), "From first to second generation professional doctorate", Studies in Higher Education, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 279-291

Shulman, L.S., Golde, C.M., Bueschel, A.C. and Garabedian, K.J. (2006), "Reclaiming education's doctorates: a critique and a proposal", Educational Researcher, Vol. 35 No. 3, pp. 25-32

Simpson, R. (1983), How the PhD Came to Britain: A Century of Struggle for Postgraduate Education, Society for Research into Higher Education, Guildford

Stephenson, J.M., Malloch, M. and Cairns, L. (2006), "Managing their own programme: a case study of the first graduates of a new kind of doctorate in professional practice", Studies in Continuing Education, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 17-32

UKCGE (2011), Professional Doctorates in the UK, UK Council for Graduate Education, Lichfield

Westcott, E. (1997), "A professional in the dock", Times Higher Education Supplement, 16 May, p. 111

About the Guest Editors

Gail Sanders is a Professor of Management Education and Development at the University of Sunderland, UK. Professor Gail Sanders is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: mailto:gail.sanders@sunderland.ac.uk

Dr Rosemarye T. Taylor is a Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Central Florida, USA.