Leveraging PhD Students to Support EdD Dissertation Writing

Abstract

Doctoral faculty have long advocated for writing support for doctoral candidates during the dissertation stage. However, schools of education often fail to provide organizational supports to assist struggling dissertators. EdD students in CPED institutions may need additional supports due to shorter time-to-degree programs and full-time work commitments. This paper reports how one PhD student in a CPED institution acted as a dissertation consultant for 35 EdD dissertators and successfully guided them through their dissertations. The author examines how her background in composition, experiences in education research, and willingness to address socio-emotional needs contributed to this success and argues that PhD students with similar backgrounds can take up dissertation consulting work in schools of education as an organizational support for EdD dissertators. The mutual benefits of engaging in this work are discussed as is the potential for school-university partnerships stemming from PhD-EdD student collaboration during doctoral study.

Virtual Dissertation Circles: Student Engagement Strategies and Lessons Learned

“…One non-faculty-based source of support for doctoral students comes from the cohort (Capello, 2020). Research demonstrates that connections among cohort members is associated with doctoral student retention (Capello, 2020;Geesa, Lowery, & McConnell, 2018).…”

“…One non-faculty-based source of support for doctoral students comes from the cohort (Capello, 2020). Research demonstrates that connections among cohort members is associated with doctoral student retention (Capello, 2020;Geesa, Lowery, & McConnell, 2018). Further, these connections contribute to self-determination (Beachboard, Beachboard, Li, & Adkison, 2011), which is a predictor of dissertation success (Martin & Harrell, 2020).…”

The Academic Supervisor of Higher Education Students’ Final Projects: A Gatekeeper of Quality?

“…As Bazrafkan, Yousefy, Amini, and Yamani (2019) state, "Faculty members supervise the students because qualified supervision leads to success on the part of the student, and it has moral, reputational, and financial outcomes for the institution" (p. 1). However, this highly complex process often poses obstacles to both supervisors and students (Minayo, 2019;Roberts & Seaman, 2018;Zaheer & Munir, 2020;Seijas, Val, Antelo, & Rodríguez, 2018;Nouri, Larsson, & Saqr, 2019;Capello, 2020;Alabdulaziz, 2020;Roberts & Seaman, 2017;van Rooij, Fokkens-Bruinsma, & Jansen, 2019). Nouri et al (2019) offer an illustrative view of these difficulties when they state that Not finishing a master thesis is a devastating personal experience for students that costs precious time, loss of money and energy.…”

Forward Momentum: Providing Supportive Space for EdD Students’ Dissertation Progression through Weekly Online Writing Sessions

“…There is a growing body of work on writing groups at the doctoral level (Aitchison, 2009(Aitchison, , 2010Ferguson, 2009;Inouye & McAlpine, 2019, Lassig et al, 2013Lim et al, 2019;Maher et al, 2013;Wegener et al, 2016). While the majority of this work has focused on doctoral students enrolled in doctor of philosophy (PhD) programs, there is some work on writingrelated services or programs for EdD students (Capello, 2020;Lassig et al, 2013;Murphy et al, 2014). Writing groups help students practice writing skills and develop as scholarly writers (Aitchison, 2009(Aitchison, , 2010Ferguson, 2009;Lassig et al, 2013;Maher et al, 2013;Murphy et al, 2014;Wegener et al, 2016), improve thinking (Aitchison & Lee, 2006), and build a community of peers (Maher et al, 2013;McAlpine & Asghar, 2010).…”