Practice-Based Educational Research

Incoming PK12 general education teachers beginning their careers are not wanting to have individuals with intellectual disabilities in their classroom due to a lack of special education experience and knowledge. This practice-based qualitative narrative dissertation study explored student teacher individual perceptions and experiences on special education classroom behavior and inclusion for elementary public-school general education student teachers. The practice-based problem was the negative views pre-service K12 educators held for classroom inclusion and personal perceptions of individuals with intellectual disabilities. The study sample included 10 student teacher college students enrolled in one Texas early childhood program. Schlossberg's Transition Model was used as the practice-based conceptual framework and data were gathered from interviews and analyzed using Clandinin and Connelly's procedures for narrative analysis. The findings determined pre-service general education teachers are not always provided adequate inclusion training.

New Investigator Fidelity

This chapter presents researcher positionality within the specific context of practitioner doctoral research or practice-based research. The explication of researcher positionality is an essential precursor to practitioner doctoral inquiry for scholar-practitioners and can serve as a key anchor and measure for the scholar-practitioner's journey as new investigator and entrance to the scholarly academic community. The chapter also describes how the use of reflexivity may enhance fidelity of researcher positionality within practice-based doctoral research that informs professional practice. In addition, considerations and illustrations are offered for the evaluation and articulation of researcher positionality within the practitioner doctoral research journey that draws on the insider-outsider role of the scholar-practitioner as new researcher and seasoned practitioner.

Fit for Purpose

Using an illustrative case study, this chapter explores the two-year design process of a practice-based Doctor of Education degree program in an online university. Emerging from the continuous improvement lens, the redesign process centered around the examination of the purpose of the degree in the context of meeting the educational needs of practitioners in the field. Principally, this program redesign led to greater differentiation between the practitioner-based EdD degree and the PhD to provide students with distinct options for meeting their personal and professional goals.

Doctoral Practitioner Researcher Agency and the Practice-Based Research Agenda

This chapter addresses practitioner researcher agency specific to doctoral education and the post-doctorate research agenda. Perspectives come from both doctoral scholars and doctoral research supervisors of practice-based or practice-led dissertation research for current research insights and examples of dissertation researcher agency specific to U.S. practitioner doctoral programs. Scholar-practitioner agency among the doctoral learning community is defined and discussed as well as the post-doctorate practice-based research agenda.

Researcher Positionality in the Dissertation in Practice

This chapter explores first the role of researcher perspective in the research process, then the unique nuances of the researcher positionality in dissertations in practice, followed by a discussion of the advantages and limitations of the unique positionality assumed by dissertations in practice. This chapter concludes by noting the importance of constructing conceptual coherence between the implications of the scholarly-practitioner's positionality statement and the discussion of the dissertation's ethical considerations and limitations. The dissertation in practice, more so than with traditional Ph.D. dissertations, assumes that the researcher holds close personal connections to the research site, participants, and contexts. Far from envisioning the researcher as an objective outside observer, the dissertation in practice assumes that the researcher has a vested interest in solving the professional problem of practice within their place of employment in the presence of colleagues. For this reason, the full disclosure of the researcher's positionality becomes all the more important.

High-Impact Writing Support for Online Students Writing a Dissertation in Practice

This chapter examines the unique writing needs of professional doctoral students and the writing goals of the dissertation in practice that distinguish these students from traditional research-oriented graduate student writers. In this chapter, the authors survey emerging scholarship that establishes best practices for online writing support. Additionally, this chapter combines the insights gained from the discussion of professional doctoral students' unique needs and writing support research in order to establish applicable best practices to support online professional doctoral students in the dissertation in practice writing process. These best practices are further informed by the authors' practical experience of launching an online professional doctoral degree writing center that currently serves more than 300 online students. This chapter concludes that intentional, tailored writing support complements professional graduate degree students' course work through a structured approach to the writing process that emphasizes transferable skills and reflective value.

Navigating the Doctoral Labyrinth

The journey through a practitioner doctorate program to earn the terminal degree has been likened to a labyrinth with its complex maze or a mountain climb with its inherent obstacles and challenges the doctoral scholar must surpass to be successful. Reflexive positionality is a concomitant process which can be used throughout the practitioner doctorate to facilitate the iterative and recursive journey of the scholar-practitioner. Reflexivity facilitates an introspective process to elevate professional practitioners to scholar-practitioners and incorporate a reflexive view to transcend doctoral hurdles, attain the terminal degree, and return to practice to solve societal problems and problems within the discipline. Practitioner doctorate leadership may also be well served to incorporate reflexivity in the pedagogical redesign of the practitioner doctorate to strengthen the development and preparation of these scholar-practitioners.

Action Research in Practice-Based Doctoral Programs

Action research is an accepted method that can be used effectively in practice-based doctoral programs to evaluate a multitude of questions and processes. This research method focuses on real-world problems and solutions, and is used in a variety of fields primarily in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. This chapter provides an overview of action research, approaches and models, ethical concerns, best practices, criticisms of this research method, its use in doctoral education including dissertations and other research projects, and provides examples of action research in practice-based doctoral education in business, education, and healthcare.

Scholar to Practitioner

Traditionally, the role of the research supervisor/dissertation chair has been to support the doctoral student with the goal of making the student a scholar through the research conducted for the dissertation. In the traditional research institution environment this research was designed to build theory. Today, while this research tradition still exists and the doctor of philosophy degree continues to be awarded, a shift has occurred in the higher education landscape such that a practice-oriented type of research is being produced in practitioner doctorate programs. Dissertations in the practitioner doctorate should be focused on research that has as its objective solving real world problems. As such, this may be a difficult change for individuals who have been mentoring doctoral students for years with the goal of building or testing theory over application of theory. Seasoned research supervisors/dissertation chairs educated in a research doctorate environment may resist this change, even as they supervise doctoral students studying in a practitioner doctorate environment.

Autoethnography and Other Self-Inquiry Methods for Practice-Based Doctoral Research

For some doctoral practitioner-researchers, the methods used within autoethnography and other self-inquiry-based research methods are appropriate for a practitioner dissertation as the phenomenon of inquiry is a central human, intrinsic, and experiential self-focused construct. The tenets of autoethnography and other self-as-subject research support the view that new knowledge can be discoverable from within the individual lived experience, and this chapter presents current trends and scholarship for the use of autoethnography and other self-inquiry research methods for practice-based doctoral research. The chapter also presents one case from a recent doctoral autoethnographer to illustrate the experience of a practice-based autoethnographic dissertation study within a practitioner doctoral program.