Inquiry in Context The EdD in EPE Reimagined

Who we are…  Policy department  Blend of social foundations, higher education, as well as research & measurement  We regularly teach to the campus community:  Educational Statistics (Multivariate, SEM/HLM, Rausch)  Evaluation, Survey Research, & Institutional Research  Qualitative Field Methods  Historical Research Methods & Oral History

What we tried  1 st Cohort Curriculum:  First year “foundations”  Second year “contextual studies”  Third year “research design”  Inquiry Coursework:  Foundations of Inquiry  Intro Educational Statistics  Evaluation  Institutional Research

What went wrong…  We didn’t focus enough on design.  We had breadth but not depth.  We didn’t focus enough on policy research  Projects ended up looking like traditional studies.  Students were confused about audience.

What went right  The students found a way. Self-teaching and collaboratively learning what they needed to get the job done.  Projects emerged that we would not have expected, especially when students followed their personal expertise and curiosities.  We learned a lot.

What we learned…  Students need to be able to critically “consume” research they see and read in the literature and understand the audiences for which research findings are prepared.  They need to know how to design an effective study for the problem at hand. This may require multiple or mixed methods of inquiry.  They need the tools (often simple) to execute those designs rigorously and they need to practice using those tools in context.  They need to know how to disseminate their findings to multiple audiences.

Proposed Blended Curriculum  New Foundations course emphasizing inquiry literacy & audience  Stand Alone Educational Statistics  Survey Research blended with IR  Evaluation blended with Policy Research  Qualitative Methods blended with Org & Administration research and theory This means 15 credit hours of inquiry!

Final Thoughts on Audience  Audience matters. PhD students have one audience…their academic field of study. EdD students have multiple stakeholders in their work and must be able to respond to most if not all of them including the academy.  Awareness of audience should not mean undue influence on the integrity of inquiry.  To be effective as well as rigorous, research design should be appropriate for the needs of the audience.