Reviews the current debate in the USA concerning the general
dissatisfaction with administrator preparation and resulting tensions
between the award of the PhD versus the EdD, with a preference for the
award of the latter articulated by critical observers of the profession.
Design considerations are highlighted for the implementation of EdD
curricula in Australia, where the professional doctorate is now being
offered at a number of universities. Implications are drawn from the US
experience regarding the need to legitimate the EdD as a valued
qualification of standing in its own right and clearly focused on
meeting the needs of practitioners. Describes a curriculum process
model, initially developed at the University of Texas at Austin, with
the potential and capacity to guide and inform university‐based
administrator preparation as well as on going professional development
over the course of a career span of intermediate length. Concludes that
appropriate models are needed which gave shape and form to a
professionally oriented EdD, abstracting from relevant theoretical
principles and derived from a knowledge base that can be justified on
its own terms.