Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College Doctoral Research Conference 2019

On April 13, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College hosted its virtual Doctoral Research Conference. The DRC allowed students in the Doctor of Education in Leadership and Innovation degree program to present their action research projects to their peers in 29 online sessions moderated by MLFTC faculty members. More than 140 EdD students shared their ongoing research, and more than 20 faculty members participated as moderators or attendees.

Associate Professor Craig Mertler, who directs the EdD program, says, "The DRC was a huge success. It's a very important part of our EdD program, providing our students with opportunities to share their current research and receive feedback from colleagues and faculty. It also allows them to network with students outside their own cohorts, but who are also conducting innovative research in their workplace settings, across various stages of progress through our program."

The EdD in Leadership and Innovation is designed for practicing educators — teachers and teacher leaders, principals, superintendents and higher education professionals — who enter the program from a variety of settings. Offered in face-to-face and online formats, the EdD emphasizes cohort-based learning, and allows doctoral students to create action research projects tailored to their workplaces. The culminating requirement of the program is an action-research dissertation such as those presented as works-in-progress at the conference.

Mertler said of the EdD students' projects, "I am constantly impressed by the depth of innovative research that our students design and implement in order to solve individualized problems of practice in their own settings, and by the commitment they have to improving education at all levels."

Last spring the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College EdD was named Program of the Year by the members of the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate. CPED includes more than 100 public and private colleges that “... work together to undertake a critical examination of the doctorate in education through dialogue, experimentation, critical feedback and evaluation.”

Here are some of the research projects presented at DRC 2019.