A problem of practice is not a smaller research question. It is a different kind of question
EdD candidates get pushed toward PhD habits by supervisors trained in them, and the result is a study that is neither properly applied nor properly theoretical. The dissertation in practice has its own logic, and most of the difficulty comes from not being told what it is.
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It starts in your own setting, and it has to return there
The problem of practice comes from somewhere real: your district, your school, your program. That is not a lesser starting point than a gap in the literature, and it carries an obligation a PhD does not. The work has to be usable by the people in that setting when it is finished.
This changes the design. Action research, improvement science, program evaluation and case study appear far more often than experimental designs, because the question is usually how do we improve this rather than what is true in general. Committees are looking for a defensible plan for change, not just for measurement.
It also changes your relationship to the site. You are frequently studying an organization you work in, which raises positionality and consent questions that a researcher arriving from outside does not face. Handling that well is a strength of applied work and handling it badly is one of the most common reasons for trouble at IRB.
- A problem of practice framed so it is researchable
- A design that fits improvement rather than imitating an experiment
- Positionality and insider access handled explicitly
- A timeline that survives a full teaching year
What we work through
With the assumption that you are working full time
- Narrowing a practice problem until a study can address it
- Choosing between action research, evaluation and case study
- Insider researcher positionality, written so it says something
- Site access, permissions and where IRB fits alongside them
- Writing in the weeks a school year actually leaves you
Four shapes an EdD study usually takes
Action research
Cycles of plan, act, observe and reflect, carried out in your own setting. Fits the EdD naturally and is frequently written up too loosely, which is where points go.
Action research supportImprovement science
Plan-do-study-act cycles, driver diagrams and measures. Increasingly common in education doctorates and it has its own reporting conventions that committees expect.
Program evaluation
Assessing whether something already running is working, against a stated logic model. The design question is usually which evaluation framework rather than which method.
Case study
One site or a small number, studied in depth. The recurring weakness is failing to define the case and its boundaries, which makes the findings hard to interpret.
Your study, in your own setting
- We do not write your dissertation or any section of it.
- We do not design your intervention or your study.
- We do not analyze your data for you.
- We do not contact your district, your site or your institution.
- We teach, coach, and review what you have written.
Studying your own workplace raises real questions about consent and power, especially where participants are colleagues or people you supervise. We will raise these where we see them, because IRB will. Read the full policy.
Frequently Asked Questions
A real, specific problem in a setting you have access to, that matters to the people in it, and that a study could produce usable knowledge about. Student engagement is a topic. Why the ninth-grade literacy intervention adopted last year has not shifted outcomes in three of our five schools is a problem of practice.
No, and the framing is unhelpful. They demonstrate different things. An EdD is usually harder on access, stakeholder management and doing the work alongside a full-time job. A PhD is usually harder on theoretical positioning. Both are doctorates held to doctoral standards.
Usually yes, and it is the norm for an EdD. It requires explicit attention to your position, particularly if you have authority over potential participants, and it requires site permission alongside IRB approval. Plan for both, because they are separate processes with separate timelines.
Directly, in a positionality section that does actual work. Say what your role is, what access and what blind spots it gives you, what power relationships exist with participants, and what you did about them. A positionality statement that only says the researcher is an educator is not doing anything.
This is the real question for most EdD candidates, and the answer is almost never find more hours. It is usually about protecting a small regular slot, working in smaller units than a chapter, and planning the year around the weeks that are genuinely available. Coaching on this is often more valuable than help with the writing itself.
Usually that the study is describing a problem and a response without connecting either to a body of thinking that explains why the response should work. A conceptual framework is often what they are asking for, and it is easier to add early than after the design is fixed.
Tell us the problem of practice
We will tell you whether it is framed narrowly enough to study, which design actually fits it, and what your committee will ask about your position in the setting.
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