Learning to Walk the Talk: Designing a Teacher Leadership EdD Program as a Laboratory of Practice

This article tries to "put a face" on the complex and abstract process of program change in relation to key principles from the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED). We examine the principles of the "scholarship of practice," "laboratory of practice," and "signature pedagogy" within a discussion of the evolution of a clinical practice program in the Teacher Leadership EdD program at Washington State University. We discuss and critique this program as a possible way to meet two urgent issues facing colleges of education: 1) engaging in quality practitioner preparation and 2), making that preparation meaningful and relevant to increasingly complex constituents, reform frameworks, societal/world problems, and the diverse and layered lives of our students. Discussing program changes, we explore ways that the program itself can become a laboratory of practice for its faculty and students.