Teaching Research and Data Use in the Education Doctorate

Abstract

Schools now face a sea of “evidence”—supposedly validated products, research findings, and test, demographic, and teacher-generated data—that leaders must use. How have recent reforms to educational doctorate (EdD) programs addressed these demands? Case studies of four exemplary EdD programs illustrate how the better ones help graduates learn to use evidence. These programs have well-developed strategies for teaching students to find, assess, and conduct practical research. While they provide opportunities for students to share their work with users, they rarely provide the intellectual tools and frameworks to think about putting different kinds of evidence into practice, even in leadership courses.