Chapter 4: Building and Sustaining a Learning Cohort

The Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) focuses on “developing stewards of practice” (Perry & Imig, 2008, p. 44, emphasis in original) through Doctor of Education (EdD) programs uniquely different from traditional Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programs primarily designed for research preparation (Golde & Walker, 2006; Schulman, Golde, Bueschel, & Garabedian, 2006). To achieve differentiation from traditional PhD programs, CPED-member institutions typically define a sequence of curricula delivered through laboratories of practice. These redesigned EdD programs also feature profession-oriented knowledge bases called signature pedagogies, research methods appropriate for use by scholarly practitioners, and unique dissertation formats for reporting practice-oriented findings (Gutherie, 2009; Loss, 2009; Osterman, Furman, & Sernak, 2013; Perry, 2011; Zambo, Zambo, Buss, Perry, & Williams, 2013). Because most EdD programs utilizing CPED design features are intended for educational practitioners who are employed full-time, they are often delivered through executive, cohort-based models that are carefully planned, fast-paced, problem-oriented, and applied (Browne-Ferrigno & Muth, 2012; Suleiman & Whetton, 2014; Taylor & Storey, 2011). Doctoral students participating in cohort programs thus develop not only new professional knowledge and skills (Amrein-Beadsley et al., 2012) but also collegial relationships that are sustained after graduation (Burke, Preston, Quillen, Roe, & Strong, 2009; Decker, Dykes, Gilliam, & Marrs, 2009).