1.4 Innovations in educational leadership doctoral programs  (Page 2/4)

The collaborative doctoral program developed in Louisiana involves a blending of theory and practice through the use of both content courses, for the development of skills and knowledge, and practicum courses, which include action research-oriented field based projects applied to problems identified in the student's home organizations. The action research project(s) culminate in project reports for inclusion in their doctoral program portfolio. These action research projects may focus on one topic (possibly their dissertation topic), or they may conduct action research on different topics. Because this particular degree program is intended to produce practitioners who are capable of intensive and responsive research to enhance the academic process to which they are affiliated, such a rigorous experience is appropriate. The intended outcome of these practicum experiences is practitioners with increased administrative, analytical and problem solving skills. The action research oriented practicum experience supplements, but does not replace, the dissertation research process which is another outcome of the doctoral degree program.

The action research requirement of the doctoral program consists of three field-based Practicum Experiences for a total of 3 Credit Hours with the following components:

Practicum I—Action Research

Practicum II—Organizational Analysis&Problem Solving

Practicum III—Implementation&Administration of Organizational Improvements

These practicum courses are spread over the three year period when the student is taking the core courses of the program. One of the practicum courses is taken each year. This approach allows ample time for program design and implementation as well as reflection. Note that the practicum course starts after the student has taken the introductory research design course, and concurrent with the “Writing for Research” course and the Qualifying Paper described below. Note that this is only one model for the components of the action research projects; the content of these components may also be incorporated in one or more of the courses of the doctoral program. The components for the practicum courses are as follow.

Doctoral Practicum I—Introduction to Action Research

In the Doctoral Practicum I course, students design an Action Research Project with a focus on their own area of inquiry. Topics to be covered include:

• Understanding Action Research,
• Deciding on an Area of Focus,
• Reviewing the Literature,
• Creating a Research Plan,
• Data Collection Techniques,
• Data Collection Considerations,
• Analyzing and Interpreting Data,
• Action Planning for Educational Change, and
• Commence action research project if possible.

Doctoral Practicum II—Organizational Analysis&Problem Solving

In this second phase of the practicum experience, students will design, implement, evaluate and present results from the action research project that they have developed in Practicum I. Topics to be covered in this practicum include:

• Organizational Analysis methodology
• Theoretical concepts in organization theory
• Dynamics and complexity of organizational analysis
• Specific problems of using organizational analysis for problem solving.