Leveraging PhD Students to Support EdD Dissertation Writing

Doctoral faculty have long advocated for writing support for doctoral candidates during the dissertation stage. However, schools of education are often challenged to provide organizational supports to assist struggling dissertators. EdD students in CPED institutions may need additional supports due to shorter time-to-degree programs and full-time work commitments. This paper reports how one PhD student in a CPED institution acted as a dissertation consultant for 35 EdD dissertators and successfully guided them through their dissertations. The author examines how her background in composition, experiences in educational research, and willingness to address socio-emotional needs contributed to this success and argues that PhD students in schools of education with similar backgrounds can take up dissertation consulting work as organizational supports for EdD dissertators. The mutual benefits of engaging in this work are discussed as is the potential for school-university partnerships stemming from PhD-EdD student collaboration during doctoral study.