Consultancy Communities of Practice: The Group Consultancy Project as a Promising Model for Scholarly Practitioner Development

The last two decades have witnessed an ongoing effort to re-design the education doctorate to prepare practitioners to conduct research as a key aspect of their practice. As part of the reform, Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) members have tried to ensure the delivery of a relevant practice-based curriculum that prepares practitioners to respond to local needs. This article examines how one U.S. EdD program uses a practice-based pedagogy, called the Group Consultancy Project, to develop students as scholarly practitioners, that is, educational leaders who conduct research to enact positive societal changes. The analysis draws from final consultancy reports and from the responses of 11 students in three consultancy projects. By examining how students learned within the projects, the study reveals that the consultancy model cultivated communities of practice that moved students from a practice community toward a community of scholars and researchers.