The University of Alabama College of Education

Statement Regarding the Doctorate of Education Degree

Seeking to capture the historical spirit and future opportunities of the Doctorate of Education degree (EdD), the College of Education at The University of Alabama offers the following statement. The statement was informed by input from College faculty as well as the College’s participation in the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED).

As a professional degree, the EdD is designed for individuals seeking to increase and sharpen their capacity as leaders at all educational levels. The degree’s intent is to equip leaders with the knowledge and skills needed to enable a positive difference in an environment increasingly defined by scarce resources, globalization, growing social complexity and public accountability. The ultimate goal of the degree is to build the capacity of leaders and equip them with an ability to solve multiple and varied problems of practice.

Based on a model of professional inquiry, the EdD emphasizes the development and honing of systematic decision skills to address problems and opportunities of practice. Individuals in EdD programs will examine the core content domains of their various education disciplines and/or areas of focus. Knowledge from these domains will be used to frame and critically address problems of practice. As distinguished from other doctoral degrees, the EdD is designed for those individuals who seek to improve policy and practice through work as scholarly practitioners.