A friend asked me to just summarize my points from my last post on EdDs versus PhDs. I guess I bloggeth too much. Basically, three questions to consider:
1. What profession / occupational system are you planning to enter? If you’re going to be working within the ladders of an educational system or a field in which you will be surrounded by educators, an EdD is probably going to be fine. Many of your colleagues will also have EdDs rather than PhDs.
If, however, you’re going to be pursuing a university or academic career and want to have authority not only within education but across different academic fields, get a PhD - you will have more ‘credential recognition’ than what an EdD provides. For better or worse, within the field of education I just don’t see EdDs gaining the same recognition / stature as PhDs, although brilliant, productive minds will (should) be recognized for what they are regardless of their credentials.
2. Just as much as credential type, will pursuing an EdD versus a PhD (or vice-versa) make a significant difference in terms of what you’ll be studying or who you’ll be working with? In other words, you should consider the school you’re going to be attending, the faculty you’re going to work with, the program and the curriculum that’s being offered. If you get accepted to Harvard’s Ed School, which only offers EdDs (I believe), are you going to turn it down just because they don’t offer a PhD, all other things being ideal? Probably not. If you’re coming to TC to study international ed, which offers both the EdD and the PhD, is it so crucial that you choose one or the either? Probably not.
3. Where are you going to pursue your career? If you’re getting a degree in international education and plan to work overseas, consider the credential-culture of the particular country to which you’re headed. EdDs are fairly recent creatures in certain countries such as the UK. Will having an EdD signal that you’re ‘educationally up-to-date’ or suffering from a ’lack of rigorous preparation’? You’ll need to investigate the context.
Barbara Townsend wrote an interesting paper elaborating on this issue a few years ago. Here is a link to the paper on ERIC, in case you are interested:
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED471507&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&accno=ED471507
I should add that the above link takes you to ERIC’s page on Townsend’s paper, but the full-text document accessible on that page contains both Townsend’s piece and another very interesting paper on the subject written by Benjamin Baez. The papers are combined on the full-text document accessible via the above link. Enjoy!
Thanks Rebecca! I hope to get a chance to read these and comment shortly.