Doctor of Education

It prepares the holder for academic, research, administrative, clinical, or professional positions in educational, civil, private organizations, or public institutions.

When research universities were established in the late 19th century in the United States, they primarily awarded doctorates in the sciences and later the arts.

Shortly thereafter, in response to the societal demand for expert practitioners, doctorates began to be awarded in education.

[1] The first Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in the field of education was granted at Teachers College, Columbia University in 1893.

Holmes saw value in increasing Harvard's role in the professional training of educators[3] and established doctorate of education, or Ed.D., for students who had had a successful teaching experience, possessed a "working knowledge of biology, psychology, and the social sciences",[4] and who sought a higher position within the school system.

[3] The dissertation served to teach the student to conduct an independent investigation utilizing existing knowledge and producing a "constructive result of importance and value".

was to offer a rigorous course of study that would enhance candidates’ prior knowledge and skills and better prepare them to lead as school practitioners.

Several factors contributed to the confusion: First, offering two doctoral degrees resulted in constant conflict between the "demands of theory and those of practice".

is a full academic doctorate that can only be granted by AUCC-accredited institutions and shares equal parity with a Ph.D. (Education).

programs in Canadian institutions must include an original contribution to knowledge which must be chaired (supervised) by an accomplished researcher and orally defended (viva) to internal and external examiners.

You have to submit the synopsis within one year of your enrollment as candidate and you must complete coursework from university recognized center followed by written exam.

[citation needed] In the United Kingdom, the EdD is a terminal research degree that is equivalent to the PhD, both which can only be granted by universities with research-degree awarding powers.

Meanwhile, the PhD "is intended to enable [students] to produce [their] own thesis and to develop a range of research and other more generic skills.

From the very beginning, there was a formal division between the EdD and the PhD in education, and the growing popularity of the applied doctorates was met by faculty in the arts and sciences questioning their legitimacy.

They argued that practical and vocational aims were inappropriate for doctoral study, which they contended should be focused on producing scholarly research and college professors.

[2] One study on dissertations submitted between 1950 and 1990 indicated that there were no differences between the two degrees regarding basic versus applied research or the significance of the findings.

[27] In addition to educational settings, the EdD degree is designed to address real-world issues including clinical mental health counseling and human resource development.

"[2] Arthur Levine, former president of Teachers College, Columbia University, said that the EdD degree is granted to both scholars and administrators and as such makes the degree ambiguously defined, that the programs in educational leadership specifically suffered from low standards, and that "There is absolutely no reason why a school leader needs a doctorate.

"[33] Barbara K. Townsend, Professor of Higher Education and Associate Dean for Research and Development at the University of Missouri at Columbia, suggests the doctorate of education is most frequently sought for vanity purposes and to improve one's status, citing a 2000 survey of California school superintendents in which they identify the greatest value of the EdD as being its "symbolic value (credibility and respects a basis for leadership)", further adding that there is scant research or evidence to suggest that possession of a doctorate in education improves one's ability to be an effective administrator.

[37] David Imig described reforms to the EdD as including more collaborative work involving the analysis of data collected by others.

[32] The Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate is currently working with over 80 institutions to collaboratively redesign the EdD and "to make it a stronger and more relevant degree for the advanced preparation of school practitioners and clinical faculty, academic leaders and professional staff for the nation’s schools and colleges and the learning organizations that support them".