Steering Doctor of Education Program: Dilemmas, Challenges and Potentials of Development

Doctor of Education (EdD) is a doctoral level program which is becoming popular in modern times. Additional to the PhD program, professional doctoral program is the highest academic degree program offered in universities. However, many people are not aware of the differences between EdD and PhD programs. The lack of understanding leads to misinterpretation and unrealistic expectation of this program. The inaccurate perception of this program may cause issues in candidate selection, supervision and also in regards to the direction, quality and credential of EdD graduates. This paper consists of literature review that examines these issues, particularly in relation to the dilemmas and challenges faced by the faculty administration in the management of EdD program. The findings from this literature review will be used to plan the development of EdD program, which would benefit both the students and the administers. Most importantly, it is hoped that the findings would contribute to the development of EdD program in producing high-quality educators for local and international educational institutions.