Educational leaders and the professional doctorate dissertation: an analysis of leaders’ interests within the educational leadership corpus

ABSTRACT

Educational leadership scholarship, research on school individuals at the helm of achieving school goals, is well documented. However, less is known regarding educational leaders’ research in professional doctorate programmes, where practice may influence scholarship. This study sought to add to professional doctorate research by using directed qualitative content analysis guided by educational administration schools of thought described in a review of the literature to uncover educational leaders’ interests and concerns through an examination of 101 professional doctorate dissertations completed between 2013 and 2019. Of the 101 dissertations analysed, 88 aligned with the educational administration corpus. Educational leaders focused the majority of their research on school improvement and school effectiveness (65.9%), while leading teachers (5.7%) was of less concern. This result suggests that educational leaders with the agency or power to implement the findings from their doctoral dissertation may consider research in school improvement and school effectiveness as the most critical education administration school of research. Results from this study could be used by other educational leadership programmes to determine the prevalence of education administration research, examine the role of practice in research completed, and to broaden the scope of leaders’ research.

KEYWORDS:

• Professional doctorates
• educational administration
• educational leadership
• doctoral research
• educational leadership preparation

Disclosure statement

The authors do not have any potential conflict of interest to report.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marjorie Ceballos

Dr.Marjorie Ceballos is an assistant professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Central Florida. She worked in secondary schools as a teacher, instructional coach, and school district administrator. Her research areas include instructional leadership, educational leadership preparation, and the effect of school policies on English learners’ achievement.

T. Vitale

Dr.T. Vitale is a lecturer of Educational Leadership at the University of Central Florida. He worked as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, and executive leader in schools. His research areas include curriculum, instruction, educational leadership, and the advising of doctoral candidates.

W. R. Gordon

Dr.W. R. Gordon is a lecturer of Educational Leadership at the University of Central Florida. He was a teacher, principal, and executive leader for over 36 years in educational organisations. His research interests include online education, curriculum development, systems-wide approaches to instructional improvement, and doctoral education.