Doctorates for All: Examining the Mimetic EdD/PhD Octopus

• In Event: (Re)Imagining Doctoral Education: Resisting and Interrogating the PhD/EdD Octopus

Abstract

For decades, professionals in many fields have been pushed to obtain doctoral-level education to secure leadership positions outside the academy and within the ever expanding administration of higher education. The professional doctorate as a phenomenon has attempted to mimic the intellectual tradition rooted in the image of the PhD—what William James deemed “three magic letters”—for a variety of non-intellectual reasons. Just as the mimetic octopus can mimic its underwater environment, so too does the professional doctorate. This presenter will examine the historical and contemporary circumstances, contradictions, and myths of the professional doctorate in education and explore the ethical quandaries that are latent in the ever-changing mass production of such degrees. Although the education doctorate (EdD) was designed with different ends in mind—primarily for practice rather than research—the EdD has not escaped the reality that doctoral-level training in education tends to privilege research and theory. Through an exploration of a variety of policy documents and descriptive data (The Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED), Carnegie degree classifications, IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System), the Lumina Foundation’s Degree Qualifications Profile Report, and the European Union’s Salzburg Principles), this presenter will investigate the complex socio-political myths that sustain the professional doctorate octopus.

Author

• Jessica Heybach, Western Michigan University