Clark University’s newest doctoral program is getting some company—more than 165 colleges and universities’ worth.
The Worcester university has joined the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate, an international consortium focused on improving and advancing the doctor of education degree, or Ed.D., with an emphasis on preparing professionals to tackle real-world problems in schools, educational systems and other organizations.
Clark is among 18 institutions newly admitted to the consortium, according to an announcement from the university. Merrimack College and Gordon College are among the other Massachusetts institutions in the organization.
The move comes as Clark launches its Ed.D. in Transformative Education, a doctoral program built around practitioner research and aimed at educators and other professionals seeking to bring research directly into their work.
Unlike doctoral programs primarily designed to prepare academic researchers, the professional doctorate is intended to connect scholarship with problems practitioners encounter on the ground. The Carnegie Project describes its members as a community working to strengthen that approach through collaboration among faculty, students and administrators.
Clark described the consortium as “a vibrant international community dedicated to preparing scholarly practitioners” who combine research, professional knowledge and inquiry to address persistent problems in their fields.
For Clark, membership gives faculty and students access to a larger network that has spent nearly two decades examining what an education doctorate should look like — and how it can remain academically rigorous while being useful outside the walls of academia.
“The Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate is the leading intellectual voice of the future direction of the credential in the country,” John LaBrie, Clark’s associate provost and dean of Graduate Studies and International Programs, said in the announcement. “As members and affiliates, we ensure our faculty and scholars in the program are studying in a program that is not only rigorous but also on the leading edge of thought in this field.”
The consortium provides opportunities for institutions to share research, practices and ideas as they develop and refine Ed.D. programs. Collectively, members also work to define the role of the professional doctorate and how it differs from other advanced academic degrees.
Jill A. Perry, executive director of the Carnegie Project, said in the release that each of the 18 newest institutions brings “a distinct voice and shared commitment to preparing transformational leaders who can navigate complexity, exercise leadership responsibly, and create meaningful change in education and other human-serving organizations.”
Clark’s Transformative Education program places particular emphasis on practitioner inquiry and social justice, an approach its director said could also benefit from connections with educators doing similar work elsewhere.
“We look forward to collaborating in this networked community, contributing to it, and learning from other Ed.D. programs committed to practitioner inquiry for social justice,” said Eric DeMeulenaere, professor of education and director of Clark’s Ed.D. in Transformative Education. “We hope this membership provides a space for our doctoral students to connect with other practitioners working to transform the educational spaces in which they work.”
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