From Getting Started to Graduation – A Student Guide to the EdD (eng)

From Getting Started to Graduation: A Student Guide to the EdD, a volume in The Coming of Age of the Education Doctorate Series book series, pulls back the curtain on the hidden curriculum of the EdD experience for students, fully supporting their journeys by making what is too often anxious and abstract more clear and concrete. Drawing from years of experience from designing and directing an EdD program, the authors provide an end-to-end playbook for students to draw from as they navigate their own EdD program of choice.

Part I focuses on getting started. The book begins with an establishment of the why behind getting an EdD and how this is a distinct and unique experience unlike other graduate degrees. It pushes readers to think beyond the title, encouraging them to drill down into their core motivation for pursuing not just a degree but a transformative experience. Readers will then learn about finding the match quality between their goals and aspirations and the myriad program choices available to them. Once students have winnowed down their choices and found their fit, they will be coached on how to build survival systems that will help them thrive from the onset to the finish line. This includes learning how to pace themselves, how to lean on friends and family, how to create contingency plans, and how to create helpful constraints that make room for work-life balance. The book closes Part I with helpful tips for time and resource management, as well as how to build routines and habits that allow them to be kind of their future selves.

Part II explicitly explores how to navigate this years-long quest and stay the course. Readers will learn how to get curious and keep that door open across coursework in order to allow for innovative and creative ideas to flourish and eventually lead to fusion―the key to creative thinking. With the door opened to ideas and exploration, the book sets the stage for how to become a scholar-practitioner through key habits of mind such as the what-if and maybe mindset and tackling the tough task of synthesis. Part II ends with the call to team up and to take this winding road together. The EdD experience can be lonely if students go it alone, and the volume explains how and why teaming up is not just nice but necessary to persevere as the way to reach the finish line.

Finally, Part III pivots to helping students survive the intensive thinking, researching, and writing demands of the dissertation. Readers will tap into years of tips and tricks on how to break this mystifying and monstrous project into sizable and achievable small steps that fuel motivation for the long haul so that students avoid burnout during the final push as they near defending their projects and crushing their comps. When finished, EdD students will be able to leverage what is too often hidden from students and draw from the concrete examples, strategies, stories, and templates therein in order to start strong and finish strong.

Perfect for courses such as: Introduction to Research; Research Methodology; Introduction to the EdD; The Scholar-Practitioner; Exploring Problems of Practice; Becoming a Change Agent

Dr. Keri Carter is an assistant professor in University Studies at Middle Tennessee State University, where she teaches professional and integrated studies courses, and she is also affiliate faculty in the Assessment, Learning, and Student Success program. Carter has taught in higher education since 2009 and has also served in writing center administration.

Kevin Krahenbuhl holds a Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education and History and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies, with an emphasis on Borders, Migration, and Culture from Arizona State University, as well as a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership from Northern Arizona University. Krahenbuhl has ten years of experience teaching history in high school in Arizona, teaching history for several years in community college, and serving as a baseball and golf coach, including being part of multiple state championships. He has since worked in higher education as a professor in South Dakota and now in Tennessee. Krahenbuhl’s main lines of research have focused on applied cognition, the role of truth in educational contexts, learning in history, and learning with technology. He is the author of dozens of peer reviewed publications including several in widely read and top-tier journals, including Educational Leadership and The Kappan. He has presented hundreds of times on academic research and application of principles for learning in peer reviewed academic settings as well as in professional development and public training sessions. Krahenbuhl has been active in grant work as well. He served as a delegate of MTSU to the American University of Kurdistan, visiting Iraq on a federally funded grant in 2022, and is a co-PI on an NSF-funded, multi-million-dollar grant entitled “LEADS: Leaders in Education Advancing Data Science.” Krahenbuhl has also been active in the public arena as well. He has published over a dozen articles in popular, widely read outlets including The Chronicle of Higher Education and Medieval Warfare Magazine. He has been interviewed many times by media on topics associated with learning, cognition, history, and the concept of truth. He was recipient of the Zeitgeist Award for a published paper on diversity in teacher education and has served as a keynote speaker in states around the country.

Dr. John Lando Carter is an associate professor of education at Middle Tennessee State University. Carter began his teaching career in 2008 as a secondary ELA and creative writing teacher in Rutherford County, Tennessee. He joined the Assessment, Learning, and Student Success Ed.D. Program as a faculty member at MTSU in 2017 and became the interim Director of Teaching Excellence in 2022. He is co-author of the book Teaching Signature Thinking: Strategies for Unleashing Creativity in the Classroom.