Results of a survey of program coordinators of counselor preparation programs addressing current perceptions regarding the doctor of education and doctor of philosophy degrees are presented and implications are discussed.
The purpose of this study was to provide a description of current perceptions among counselor preparation faculty about the purposes of the doctor of education (EdD) and doctor of philosophy (PhD) degrees and to identify disparities between the theoretical and historical objectives and the current views of the two degrees. Since its inception at Harvard in 1920, the formal doctor of education degree, or the EdD, has been a source of controversy, discussion, and confusion in higher education. The EdD was originally envisioned as a degree for professional practitioners. The PhD has historically been for scholars specializing in aspects of the arts and sciences who plan to join university faculties and who are primarily committed to the advancement of research (Brubacher & Rudy, 1968). The controversy surrounds whether the degrees, in practice, serve distinct purposes.
Considerable research has been conducted in higher education to examine whether the theoretical purposes of the degrees are