Education Doctorate

Course overview:

The Doctorate in Education offers you the opportunity to combine advanced academic study with professional experience in a manner decided largely by you, with the support of a Director of Studies and the programme team.

The course provides you with the chance to consider the role of research in educational practice and what that means for you as an educator-researcher before embarking on your thesis. Initial modules focus on the philosophical and conceptual underpinnings of practice and research. You are encouraged to develop your reflexivity, positioning yourself as a critically informed practitioner within a field understood as inevitably problematic but open to exploration and possible change through research.

Whilst some educational doctorate provision provides a programme of modules covering aspects of sociology, psychology, education, research methods and health studies, this programme focuses on a core of reflection on the combination of research and educational praxis, remaining flexible in its assessment strategy so as to enable you to focus on your own area of interest. It will position you as a creative agent able to use academic study and practice to inform each other and synthesise the two to develop responses to challenges and opportunities in practice.

How you learn

This programme places you as a researcher-practitioner at the centre of your own learning process. Your research-based learning and your identity as an academic-professional educator is the focus of a journey facilitated by a consistent lead tutor from the onset of the programme.

This takes place alongside a cohort-based approach to ensure the peer learning and support that is highly valued by students undertaking professional doctorates, enhanced further by some shared delivery with our MA Education courses.

How you are assessed

The initial modules all provide 60 D level credits and focus on the practice of researching education practice and theory in a creative and critical way. Each requires assignments of around 6,000 words, and are based around:
• successful creation and interpretation of new knowledge through original research and advanced scholarship;
• the ability to continue to undertake pure and/or applied research and development at an advanced level.

Career opportunities:

The course is designed to enable you to consolidate and build upon previous learning and experience in your working role. It is a key to new opportunities in education, whichever setting or sector you currently operate within.

It is intended to create close links between the programme activities and content and on-going professional practice. You are likely to have already undergone considerable training and professional development but it is expected that this qualification will enhance your development even further.