“A distinguishing factor for the Education Doctorate is the development of a scholarly practitioner. Transforming Identities: How an EdD Program Develops Practitioners into Scholar-Practitioners illustrates the transformational evolution of professionals shifting from an expert practitioner to a scholar-practitioner through engagement in an innovative EdD online program. The authors have carefully crafted an overview of this program, highlighting the intentional critical reflection experiences that led to an identity transformation for the professionals earning this EdD. The powerful stories of recent graduates serve as a reflection of how this EdD program shaped their professional identities as scholarly practitioners leading impact in their professional practice.”

Dr. Sandi Cooper, Professor, Baylor University, Founding Director, EdD in Learning and Organizational Change, (CPED Program of the Year, 2022)

“FINALLY! . . . A book on practitioner scholarship that showcases the real experts on the subject – scholar-practitioners themselves! The fourteen beautifully written self-told stories of identity transformation provided by EdD graduates in Transforming Identities: How an EdD Program Develops Practitioners into Scholar-Practitioners are sure to inspire, enrich and encourage current EdD students on their own transformational journeys. A thought-provoking text for all involved in any capacity with an EdD program that is sure to stimulate lively discussion on what it means to be a scholar-practitioner.”

Nancy Fichtman Dana, Professor and Distinguished Teaching Scholar, University of Florida

“This book represents a beautiful journey into and through the CPED-affiliated EdD program at Johns Hopkins University. The faculty authors describe how the program’s components are intentionally woven together in a tapestry that gently but securely supports each student’s journey from 'experienced practitioner-aspiring scholar' to 'scholar practitioner.' But it is the alumni and their very personal and powerful stories of identity development who give the tapestry its bold colors and rich textures and invite us all to embrace the change that they have become. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in what the EdD is meant to be.”

Deanna Hill, PhD, JD., EdD Program Director, Drexel University

“For institutions committed to advancing knowledge while simultaneously addressing complex, community-based dilemmas, the education doctorate is perhaps one of our strongest leverage points. Transforming Identities: How an EdD Program Develops Practitioners into Scholar-Practitioners reminds us of the primacy of the evolution of the EdD candidate in this work. By foregrounding identity construction, Pape, Bryant, JohnBull, and Karp have illustrated for us all a salient way of building, analyzing, and refining our EdD programs while simultaneously serving as a model for how we center those we serve in our collective work.”

Thomas E. Hodges, Dean and Professor, College of Education, University of South Carolina

“Already a world-renowned research university, Johns Hopkins University is home to a relatively recent addition to its advanced graduate degree offerings. Established in 2012, Johns Hopkins University’s online EdD Program in Education seeks to address complex problems that education-practitioners face by preparing them to think critically about these problems and use research to develop meaningful, practical, and sustainable solutions within their educational institutions. The editors and contributing authors of Transforming Identities: How an EdD Program Develops Practitioners into Scholar-Practitioners skillfully tell the story of their EdD program’s development, its structure, and how graduates seek to keep research off the shelf. This edited volume highlights the potential of a thoughtfully structured EdD program, guided by an improvement science framework and CPED design principles, for generating meaningful research and facilitating the development of scholar-practitioners who will continue to affect change in educational organizations in the US and abroad.”

W. Kyle Ingle, Professor, University of Louisville

“Having navigated through the JHU EdD program personally, I find this book to be authentic! Many of the stories by fellow students resonate with me as I entered the JHU program as a business leader of 32 years at a fortune 500 company—wanting to make the transformation to higher education leadership. This book clearly illustrates the growth model I went through from “Experienced Practitioner—Aspiring Scholar” as a pre-doctoral student to a “Scholar-Practitioner” post-graduation. A must read to get glimpse of the journey and the transformation!”

John Porter, Ed.D., President, Lindenwood University

“There was a time when an EdD program looked pretty much the same as a PhD, with both culminating in dissertations that would have been hard to accurately sort into one category or the other. Each might have been focused on a problem of practice, but not in any practical way, an approach that compromised both the PhD and the EdD. Then came the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate. As a representative of one of the founding institutions to redesign doctoral preparation for professional practitioners, I’m excited to see the work that has come from this initiative. As this book demonstrates, the field has grown from interesting, but professionally disconnected, doctoral research to projects that move practice forward while enriching and expanding the professional capabilities and perspectives of those who enter these programs. While we have evidence of the usefulness of the outcomes of dissertations in practice (sometimes called capstones, and at JHU Applied Dissertations), there has been much less documentation about how these programs grow the student in addition to the field. The transformations of the JHU students, now graduates, in their own words are inspiring, as is the program that they undertook. This publication is both a guidebook and a motivator for higher education.”

Dr. Charol Shakeshaft, Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University