Transcript CPED Influence on the Redesign of the Education Doctorate

Webinar
Strategies for
Organizational Change –
Redesigning the
Education Doctorate
Fall 2014
Stephanie J. Jones, Ed.D.
Texas Tech University
Copyr i ght 2014 by the Car negi e Pr oject on the Educati on Doctor ate, Inc. ( CPED) . T he for egoi ng mater i al may be used for noncommer ci al
educational purposes, provided that CPED is acknowledg ed as the author and copyright holder. Any other use requires the prior written
consent of CPED.
OVERVIEW
 Overview of CPED Principles and Design Concepts
 Background to Study
 Change in Higher Education Organizations
 Processes of Organizational Change
 Planned Approach to Organizational Change
 Setting the Vision for Change & Change Agents
 Communicating Vision for Change
 Change Process
 Challenges to Change
 Strategies to Overcome Challenges
CPED PRINCIPLES
 CPED has six (6) working principles that guide the
professional doctorate in education:
1. Is framed around questions of equity, ethics, and social
justice to bring about solutions to complex problems of
practice.
2. Prepares leaders who can construct and apply knowledge to
make a positive difference in the lives of individuals,
families, organizations, and communities.
3. Provides opportunities for candidates to develop and
demonstrate collaboration and communication skills to work
with diverse communities and to build partnerships.
4. Provides field-based opportunities to analyze problems of
practice and use multiple frames to develop meaningful
solutions.
CPED PRINCIPLES
5. Is grounded in and develops a professional knowledge base
that integrates both practical and research knowledge, that
links theory with systemic and systematic inquiry.
6. Emphasizes the generation, transformation, and use of
professional knowledge and practice. (“Definition of and
Working Principles,” n.d., para. 6)
CPED DESIGN CONCEPTS
 CPED has six (6) design concepts that define program
components that support the development of the Scholar
Practitioner:
 Scholarly Practitioner blend practical wisdom with
professional skills and knowledge to name, frame, and solve
problems of practice;
 Signature Pedagogy is a set of practices used to prepare
scholarly practitioners for all aspects of their professional work;
 Inquiry as Practice is the process of posing significant
questions that focus on complex problems of practice. By
using various research, theories, and professional wisdom,
scholarly practitioners design innovative solutions to address
the problems of practice;
CPED DESIGN CONCEPTS
 Laboratories of Practice are settings where theory and
practice inform and enrich each other;
 Problem of Practice is a persistent, contextualized, and
specific issue embedded in the work of a professional
practitioner; addressing the issue has the potential to result
in improved understanding, experience, and outcomes; and
 Dissertation in Practice is a scholarly endeavor that
impacts a complex problem of practice. (“Design Concept
Definitions,” n.d., para. 2-6)
BACKGROUND TO STUDY
 In 2012, faculty and Fellows from CPED
Consortium member institutions engaged in a
mixed-methods, multi-case study of work at 21 of
the 25 original CPED member institutions
 Focus of the study was to explore the experiences
of the institutions in the design/redesign process of
their CPED-influenced education doctorate
 Cross-case analysis of institutional experiences
were used to identify strategies used for
organizational change
CHANGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION
ORGANIZATIONS
 Change can be defined as simply “the introduction of
something new to an organization” (Bess & Dee, 2008,
p. 796)
 According to Keller (1983), higher education institutions
are known to change incrementally and adapt in an
unplanned way
 Incremental change is unlikely to address societal needs
 It is often not guided by a united vision
 Adaptations are often haphazard, inefficient, and may not
be responsive to institutional goals
 Often takes on the form of adding more responsibilities to
existing personnel, which place unreasonable burdens on
those involved (e.g., faculty, staff, administration)
PROCESSES OF ORGANIZATIONAL
CHANGE
 In order to redesign a degree program in higher education,
faculty must be involved in the change process
 Theories of change can be used to assess the change
process when working with faculty
 Lewin’s (1951) force field analysis of change supports that
change resistance can be addressed when people
understand and contrast the need for change and the forces
that may lead them to resist change (restraining forces) and
those that induce them to change (driving forces)
PROCESSES OF ORGANIZATIONAL
CHANGE
 Lewin’s process for managing change includes:
 Unfreezing – presenting information to organizational
members that supports change is needed
 Changing – create a change in the way people think –
want to create ownership in the change process
 Refreezing – stabilizing the new change into the
culture of the organization
PLANNED APPROACH TO FACILITATING
CHANGE
 Results of this study implied that most of the study
institutions utilized a planned approach to facilitating
change, which is normally aligned with a top -down,
centralized structure (Bess & Dee, 2008)
 Planned change approach is normally driven by:
 Need to be responsive to external constituents
 Resources and time are limited
 Change initiative formulated by ambitious change agent(e.g,
College of Education Dean) with vision but executed by
others who may not share vision/ambition (e.g., faculty)
 Over time, change initiative will lose energy unless faculty
and staff are involved in the development of the change
 Communication and institutionalization of vision should be
managed from the top for institution-wide change
SETTING THE VISION FOR CHANGE
 At the study institutions, the vision to redesign the education
doctorate was generated predominantly from administration
 Mainly through the College of Education Dean
 At some institutions, the change was demanded by the state or
University President
 Redesign of the EdD need for multiple reasons
 Institutions had a number of students who were ABD and who
were not completing
 Indistinguishable differences existed between the EdD and PhD
within a program and/or college
 Pressures from state leaders who saw other states developing
EdD practitioner-based programs; and
 Demands from the community/region/state for qualified
educational leaders were increasing
CHANGE AGENTS
 Administration was instrumental in the planned change
processes at the study institutions
 Driven by external demands
 Funding shortfalls
 Principal Investigators (PI’s) for CPED project were
identified at each institution
 Appointed by the Dean of the College
 Charged with leading the change processes to achieve
the vision
 Grassroots faculty were identified at some institutions
who believed in the vision and felt impelled to lead
COMMUNICATING THE VISION FOR
CHANGE
 Committees, task forces, PI, and transparency
through documentation was used to convey
changes and the vision
 Information was shared through university -wide
communication systems, regular faculty meetings,
and individual meetings
CHANGE PROCESS
 Change process was based on planned change model
 Charge from top-level administration that the deficiencies of
the education doctorate needed to be addressed
 Appointment of leadership to lead the change process and
carry out the vision
 At some institutions, faculty participation in the change
process was mandated; at others resistors to change were
realigned to other foci areas
 Development of human resources was conducted through
sharing of CPED convening information, as well as CPED
principles and design concepts; participation in curriculum
development and teaching of courses and chairing
dissertations
CHANGE PROCESS
 Reinforcement of the vision was constant and
continuous
 Incentives were provided at some institutions to support
change processes through opportunities to co-teach,
course releases, and retreats
 Constant dialog supported the forward progression of
change
CHALLENGES TO CHANGE
 Leadership
 Deans came and went
 Many individuals in the PI positions
 Resources
 Lack of sufficient resources to support increased faculty
workloads due to design concepts of CPED-influenced
EdD and the shortening of time to degree
 Communications
 Often not at all levels of the organization
 Unclear and inconsistent
CHALLENGES TO CHANGE
 Faculty
 Resistors who prevented forward progress in change
initiatives
 Concerns about working with the EdD and how it was
viewed in tenure and promotion
 Curriculum was in a constant state of flux and redesign
 Differing philosophies on what the education doctorate
should look and feel like
STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME CHANGE
CHALLENGES
 Leadership
 PI should have the skills and abilities to collaborate and
communicate effectively
 Participate in CPED convenings and disseminating
information broadly
 Utilize faculty “champions” to lead initiatives
 Utilize work groups, task forces, and committees with
foci on specific components of the redesign efforts
 Communications
 Monthly meetings that provide structured agendas and
clear communication of information consistently
STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME CHANGE
CHALLENGES
 Resources
 Allocation of resources to support co-teaching and
course releases
 Travel support to CPED convenings
 Support of retreats and other activities to support
redesign work and dialog
 Faculty
 Resistance to change overcome by creating
transparency through distribution of documentation;
involvement in committees and leadership support
 Mandated involvement of all faculty resulted in greater
support at all levels
REFERENCES
 Bess, J. L., & Dee. J. R. (2008). Understanding college and
university organization: Theories for effective policy and practice.
Volume II - Dynamics of the system. Sterling, VA: Stylus
Publishing, LLC.
 Definition of and Working Principles for EdD Program Design.
(n.d.). The Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate.
Retrieved from http ://cpedinitiative.org/working -principlesprofessional-practice-doctorate-education
 Design Concept Definitions. (n.d.). The Carnegie Project on the
Education Doctorate. Retrieved from
http://cpedinitiative.org/design -concept-definitions
 Keller, G. (1983). Academic strategy: The management revolution
in higher education . Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
 Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social science . New York: Harper
& Row.