How can we improve the structure and delivery of Professional Doctorates? An analysis of student’s...

How can we improve the structure and delivery of Professional Doctorates?An analysis of student’s feedback using Bourdieu’s concept of capital and habitus

Patricia Jarrett, School of Health and Education, Middlesex University, London Dr Patricia Maitland, University of WestminsterDr Nick Pratt, University of PlymouthMr Lazar Karagic, De Montfort University

1. Background to the Professional Doctorate

2. What is a Professional Doctorate?

1. Characteristics, Knowledge, Assessment, Perceptions

3. The study

4. What influences Professional Doctorate students decisions?

5. Bourdieu’s concept of capital, field and habitus in relation to Professional Doctorates

6. Conclusion and Recommendations

O Outline

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© Middlesex University

Background

There has been an increase in the number of Professional Doctorate degrees offered by UK universities over last 30 years

Particularly pertinent to nurse education which has been struggling to achieve academic parity within more established academic disciplines

Acquisition of Professional Doctorates may help nursing profession achieve validity and credibility within Higher Education

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What is a Professional Doctorate?

Professional Doctorate is often defined in relation to the PhD

Professional DoctorateEmphasis on acquiring professional skillsContains taught elementsIncludes original research project

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Professional Doctorate PhD Central focus – professional practice “Pure” researchStresses applied research or application of research

Develops “professional researchers”

Taught components No taught componentCandidates have evidence of relevant experience

Previous professional experience not necessary

Completion of one or two projects or a portfolio of projects

Completion of 80, 000 word document



Differences in the nature of knowledge

Mode 1 knowledge [more PhD] produced by the Scientific Community, emphasis on knowledge which is value free, homogenous, hierarchical and constant

Mode 2 knowledge [more Professional Doctorate] acknowledges knowledge as contextual and the complexities of the workplace. Knowledge is heterogeneous, transient, there is an emphasis on real world research.

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Assessment

Equivalence to other types of doctoral degrees offered by

universitiesThe majority of universities assess professional doctorates at the

same level as they would assess a PhDResearch component of the professional doctorate is assessed in

the same way as the PhD with the emphasis on contribution to knowledge

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education [QAA] are clear that the professional doctorate is not an inferior type of degree

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Perceptions of the Professional Doctorate

Despite validation from the QAA, perception of the PhD as the

“gold standard” with any alternative as “second class” and the professional doctorate representing a “watering down” of standards

Concern that a shorter thesis was unlikely to generate the same depth of knowledge and understanding in terms of research methodology

Concern that the professional doctorate tends to be over assessedPhD remained the benchmark against which all other forms of

doctoral education are judged

Ellis, L. (2007) Academics’ perceptions of the professional or clinical doctorate: findings of a national survey. Journal of Clinical Nursing. Available

http://www.uhr.no/documents/Academics_perceptions_of_the_profeesional_or_clinical_doctorate.pdf [Accessed June 2014]

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The study

Small qualitative study

Semi-structured interviews with 12 students at DMU, Westminster and Plymouth universities

Range of disciplines including nursing, health visiting, education and other professions allied to medicine

Ethical approval granted and consent obtained

Interviews recorded and transcribed verbatim

Thematic analysis of data

Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, field and capital will be used to interpret student responses

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The study

The participants All participants were mature students, aged between

41 and 52 years of age

Range of 10 to 20 years in professional practice

All students were enrolled on a Professional Doctorate programme

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The study

Key question: what influences students decision making in choosing a Professional Doctorate?

Three themes were identified from the data Material constraintsPsychological constraints Perceptions of the Professional Doctorate.

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What factors influenced students decisions? Material constraints“I guess that’s the reason why most people don’t do a PhD or doctorate because they just

can’t afford to do it…

….it doesn’t matter [what your first preference is], you can’t do it cause you can’t afford it. So you take your next option…… and you move on….” DHSci student 1

“If I was told, we can fund you for a PhD but not for the DHSci, I’d say I’ll do the PhD because I couldn’t afford a DHSci”

“…and it was being funded by the ……., which was a bonus, so I decided to send for the literature…..” DHSci student 2

“If I had to fund myself for the entire four years……I might not have embarked on it…..”

“With regards my own particular situation, it would have been difficult [not to have funding] with supporting children at university and financial commitments” PD Health and Social Care Student

“I had looked at the PhD, but financially it would have been difficult for me to live on that.” DHSci student 3

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What influences student decisions? Psychological ConstraintsNeeding deadlines

“I’m one of these people that I need to see a point where it finishes. I don’t want something without some frame to work to. I always work best when there is a deadline……” DHSci student 3

“…I like the thought of having the two years in university with taught modules to almost get you up to the level of writing at doctoral level rather than going straight in there” DHSci student 1

Needing Support

“I felt I needed to be supported to be able to do this. I feel I needed a very supportive and directed programme rather than me going off and perhaps taking my own time to do it.” DHSci student 3

“I would probably chose the Prof Doc in that support is really helpful if you haven’t done any type of research degree before” PD Health and Social care student

“If I was presented with the professional doctorate for those reasons that there is support” DHSci student 2

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What influences student decisions? Students perception of the Professional Doctorate

Student’s perceptions of the Professional Doctorate

“Some people have told me that the professional doctorate is not viewed as being as credible as the PhD” DHSci student 1

“A friend at work was quite clear that she thought the professional doctorate was not the same status as the PhD” DHSci student 2

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What influences students decisions? Students perception of the Professional DoctorateLack of Confidence in Academic Ability

“I have never been confident of myself as an academic……so I have constantly gone through this thing of needing to prove myself….” EdD Student 1

“I felt that I was looked down on in academic circles, because I didn’t have a degree…..[a professional doctorate] was something that I had never imagined I would be able to do or be in able to do and never really thought about before”

“ I thought I wasn’t academic enough. I thought I would probably struggle.” EdD Student 2

“I came in thinking everyone else was a lot brighter than me and they must be all really clever. Someone’s going to find out I’m stupid.”

“Every time I think about it, I think what am I doing. I’m never going to be able to finish this, I’m just wasting my time.” DHSci student 3

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Bourdieu’s concept of field, habitus and capital

Education reproduces social inequalities rather than act as mechanism for social change

Why the need for different types of doctoral degrees?

Distinctions between practice/theory, research/practice, professional doctorate/PhD are part of a larger political struggle within education, [the field]

Distinctions between PhD and Professional Doctorates enables dominant group to maintain hegemony [capital] in higher education

Individuals adjust their expectations with regard to the capital they are likely to attain in terms of the limitations imposed upon them by class, background, place in the field [habitus]

Students are not only socialised into what they can and cannot achieve, but reinforce these social structures by their perceptions of the natural order of things

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Conclusion

Increased number of Professional Doctorate degrees offered by UK universities

QAA stress the equivalence of the professional doctorate to the PhD, both in content and assessment.

Students decisions were based on personal rather than professional reasons

Students perceived the professional doctorate to be less prestigious than the PhD and more doable and “easier” to achieve

Bourdieu’s theory suggests education reproduces social inequality

Struggle for power and capital within Higher Education places professional doctorates in a less prestigious position to PhD

Bourdieu's concept of habitus enables us to understand how individuals habitus is both structured and reinforces existing social structures

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Recommendations

Professional Doctorates fulfil a specific purpose

The perception of Professional Doctorates by students and others working in Higher Education is complex

This complexity needs to be understood and has implication in the development of Professional Doctorate programmes, marketing of Professional Doctorates and recruitment of students.

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Thank you for listening

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