2.1 The doctoral dissertation of educational administration: a  (Page 5/11)

“I teach a diverse population and we have a large percentage of students in that diverse population. I wanted to see how culture influenced their decision to enter postsecondary education.”

A representative EdD graduate response was:

“I was interested in the home schooling trend and its potential impact. I was also interested in adding to an area that hasn’t been explored a great deal.”

“I wanted to extend the students’ and parents’ understanding of how technology could connect homes and schools. I honestly felt that I could achieve this goal by conducting research to validate technology.”

2. Describe the just and democratic significance of your dissertation.

A majority of the PhD graduates indicated that the advancement of understanding educational leadership was the just and democratic significance of their dissertations.

A majority of the EdD graduates indicated that reflection and service was the just and democratic significance of their dissertations.

For example, one PhD graduate stated:

“I hoped by doing a quantitative and qualitative study, I could prove that leadership also entailed comprehending how culture influenced Hispanic students to the decision of this earn a postsecondary degree. I used a survey and an interview process, analyzed both and correlated them for information”.

Another PhD graduate stated:

“I wanted to provide my school district with the statistical evidence to prove that we should consider the option of creating year-round schooling.”

An EdD graduate stated:

“My rationale for this dissertation is that students who spend two years in an early intervention program should perform as well as students who were not in the program because the aim of the program was to get students on track for their grade level and then to exit the program. Students who were being compared on the Criterion-Reference Competency Test in reading and mathematics performed significantly below their regular education students even when they had been in the early intervention program for two years. Thus, it seems only right to rectify this unjust situation.”

As another example, consider this response from an EdD graduate:

“I just kept thinking about how I needed to really make the case for removing so many of our students from special education classrooms. The reason is that many of them were undeservingly placed in these classrooms. I hope that my investigation would reveal this injustice that plagued my school district.”

3. How did your educational administration program inform you of the ethical and

democratic significance of your dissertation?

The PhD graduates indicated that the textbooks and coursework helped them to realize the ethical and democratic significance of writing their dissertations. The EdD graduates indicated that by interacting with their peers, they developed an understanding of how their dissertation subjects relate to the promotion of a just and democratic society.

A sample PhD graduate response was:

“I believe that the program courses taken at my university allowed me an opportunity to take a look at the social and community implications of the impact of student learning in the primary grades.”