Professional Doctorate in Education - EdD

Research Interests 

We offer supervisory expertise in the following areas of research interests, which all tend to be related to professional practice in education:

• Assessment
• Creativity
• Childhood Studies
• Early Years
• Post-16 Provision
• Education Policy
• Music Education
• Professional Learning and Development
• Workplace Learning
• Student experience in higher education
• Teaching and learning in higher education
• Management and leadership in education
• Historical research into education

UK students

Research proposal

Applicants are required to submit as part of their application an EdD Research Proposal which identifies a particular area for potential research and some of the related literature. The Research Proposal should also discuss – if only briefly – other related interests in methodology and theory that may be relevant for the research area. Your Research Proposal should be no more than 1500 words (excluding bibliography/references).

Download the research proposal template

Course structure

You will be introduced to an array of new techniques and emerging philosophies that are available to develop your ability to critically analyse practice and the relevance of theoretical concepts which underpin them. Furthermore you will investigate the relevance of digital technologies as a means to deepen your understanding of the mobility of people, ideas, networks and meanings derived from multiple geographical and historical origins.

A major outcome will be that you will enhance your own professional skills and be in a position to influence others in the development of your organisation. At the same time and notwithstanding national policy requirements and professional practices, you will recognise a global reconfiguring of social relationships largely disconnected from national origins.

Central to this will be the need to engage in reflective and reflexive practice in order to understand the potential consequences of actions and plan for professional change in the context of the global circulation of educational ideologies, discourses and practices.

The framework of the programme incorporates components intended to develop research skills and a willingness to adopt an approach which is explicitly enquiring and involves the critique of existing practice and encourages challenges to established theory. Assessment strategies will provide you with opportunities to develop and demonstrate a range of doctoral level skills including multi-model approaches (visual and verbal) in addition to the more traditional forms of critical writing.

You will be awarded a professional doctorate on successful demonstration of the following:

• The creation and interpretation of new knowledge and contribution to professional practice through scholarly research of a quality to satisfy peer review, extend the forefront of the subject and merit publication;
• Significant development in key aspects of professional practice;
• A systematic acquisition and understanding of a substantial body of knowledge which is at the forefront of an area of professional practice;
• The general ability to conceptualise, design and develop a project for the generation of new professional knowledge, and to modify and influence practice in the light of contextual considerations, as appropriate;
• A detailed understanding of applicable techniques for both research and advanced academic enquiry.

The EdD programme is undertaken in three phases.

Phase 1 - you will undertake the first two Critical Perspectives modules through which you are introduced to key concepts in educational research methodology within the policy and political contexts of educational practice.

Phase 2 - in the second phase you will extend your experience of research methodologies and engage with a range of contemporary and experimental approaches and undertake a pilot project in an area of your choice. In phase 2 you will also undertake the university-wide PG Certificate in Research Practice which provides the opportunity to discuss and write a research proposal for the EdD thesis.

Phase 3 - you will complete a 50,000 word thesis in an area of your choice.