Notes on the emergence of EdD (Doctor of Education)

The Doctor of Education (EdD) award has been offered at universities in North America for about a hundred years, but emerged in Britain and Australia only in the 1990s. In Singapore the National Institute of Education (NIE) is just beginning to offer its own independent EdD programme. The issue of whether or not the EdD should be seen as equal in standing to the longer-established PhD is therefore a matter of current concern, especially as in the near future scores of those working in education in Singapore school principals, educational administrators, and teachers) may choose to study for an EdD as a form of advanced professional development. This paper briefly refers to the EdD in North America and Australia, but focuses principally on its increasing profile in Britain over the last 20 years. A personal view is provided on the EdD in British universities, informed by a wide reading of recent scholarly research on doctoral education and on the concept of “doctorateness”. A conclusion contains suggestions on how the reputation and utility of the EdD – in Britain but also in Singapore – can be safeguarded and enhanced, despite a climate in which academics in the UK appear to hold differing positions on its value as an award as compared to, for instance, the PhD in an education area.