Writing as Artistry: EdD Students Learning to Write as Scholarly Practitioners (The Coming of Age of the Education Doctorate)

Writing as Artistry: EdD Students Learning to Write as Scholarly Practitioners is a timely guidebook that supports EdD students’ scholarly writing development while honoring and amplifying their rich practitioner knowledge and wisdom. EdD students are educational leaders and working professionals transitioning from expert-practitioners to scholarly practitioners who aim to positively transform the lives of students and communities. This resource addresses the significant need for mastering scholarly writing skills required for EdD students’ successful degree completion and real-life impact.

The book’s conceptual approach frames scholarly writing as artistry. This perspective recognizes the work of practitioners as a deeply human and experiential process of solving problems of practice by drawing on prior knowledge and exploring new methods to improve practice. This view champions the idea that practitioners’ professional knowledge and rich prior experience are essential assets and that their insider knowledge is a necessary and key condition for rigorous practitioner inquiry. The authors adopt a critical stance that rejects the dominant notion of technical rationality, which historically views researchers as scholars and practitioners as mere “doers,” arguing instead that building successful experiences for EdD students requires and respects practitioners’ professional knowledge.

The guidebook offers a scaffolded, practical approach to scholarly writing, aiming to guide the reader toward a practice-focused lens, provides practical tools for fostering scholarly writing, and builds students’ confidence as writers. It is centrally focused on developing practice-centered dissertations and culminating projects that align with professional-practice degrees.

To support students throughout the process, the book provides a robust repertoire of writing approaches and strategies. It offers guidance on prewriting techniques for capturing initial ideas and helps students in effectively connecting their ideas with others. Critical to this artistic approach is the development of a unique writer’s voice and positionality, often through the use of reflexivity. The book includes comprehensive practical tools for navigating the often-challenging mechanics of scholarly work, detailing writing feedback and revision strategies, and including a range of templates and clear examples of student work. Furthermore, the guide provides essential advice for leveraging support structures, such as engaging with multiple mentors and critical friends. The guide also prepares students for diverse project types, including individual, collaborative, and alternative dissertation projects.

Ultimately, mastering these skills is a critical way to support students in their work beyond graduation. The ability to write clear, scholarly reports is essential, as the skills learned must transfer from the Dissertation-in-Practice experience to the student's world of practice, thus ensuring real-world impact by enhancing leaders’ capacity to implement evidence-based solutions to complex problems.

Veselina S. Lambrev is Associate Professor in the Department of Language, Literacy, Ed.D., Exceptional Education, and Physical Education in the College of Education at the University of South Florida. She holds a Ph.D. in Education with a specialization in Educational Foundations from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa. Her research explores sociocultural dimensions of education globally and the cultivation of transformative educational leaders, as well as professional-practice doctoral education, with particular attention to pedagogies that support the practice-based philosophy of the EdD and the growth of scholarly practitioners.

Micki M. Caskey, Ph.D., is professor emerita in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in College of Education at Portland State University. She holds a master’s and doctoral degree from the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL. Her research areas include professional practice, doctoral education, academic writing, and middle grades education. She has experience as an associate dean for academic affairs, doctoral program director, writing coach, teacher educator, and middle school teacher. She is a co-series editor of The Handbook of Research in Middle Level Education and The Handbook of Resources in Middle Level Education as well as the past editor of Research in Middle Level Education Online. She is also the author of several books and numerous peer-reviewed publications. She continues to share her scholarly work and ideas at regional, national, and international conferences.