2.2 Disrupting the status quo: the action research dissertation as  (Page 9/13)

Second, team projects are seldom conducted within the organization in which students work. By using team projects we reinforce the value of assuming an outsider role for our students and give them practice in performing only that role. Team projects emphasize the values of students assuming the stance of objective observers and authorities who study a situation and recommend actions for others to take—actions to which students attach little meaning and actions for which outcomes are irrelevant for the student. We do this when our real focus should be on helping students become critically reflecting actors and leaders within their own settings where they are challenged by context and often bounded by political realities.

Third, the above discussion highlights a fundamental flaw in Levine’s (2005) recommendation that the EdD be eliminated in favor of an M.B.A.-like master’s degree for the preparation of school leaders. To explore his recommendation in more depth, we conducted a literature review on the M.B.A., focusing on standards for accreditation and mention of research as a requirement of the M.B.A. We also conducted an Internet search of the top 20 ranked M.B.A. programs in the U.S.A. (as ranked by U.S. News and World Report), accessed the website of each of these ranked programs, and made note of how these programs and their capstone experiences were structured. We found that most programs used group- and case-based instruction in courses, and had capstone experiences that were either (a) seminars dealing with some focal aspect of business or an emphasis of the particular program (such as international business or globalization) or (b) team consultancy projects in which students worked in teams to address a problem in a firm in which few if any of the students worked. Little mention was made of research as a central or organizing component of M.B.A. programs. Thus, Levine’s (2005) recommendation for an M.B.A.-like program for the preparation of educational leaders is vacuous in terms of research, action, and transformation. Rather, his recommendation, if understood in light of the M.B.A. as a curricular model, strikes us to be a recommendation to simply reproduce a group of managers, trained in techniques, who serve the status quo rather than developing a set of individuals who can lead and foster the kind of human and organizational transformation that is required to achieve genuine reform of our educational systems.

This again is not to argue against the use of class- and team-based projects in EdD programs. Team-based projects are a valid and effective strategy for providing students with much needed and relatively low-risk and authentic experiences of leading and working in teams. Yet, teamwork outside the context of action research seldom provides for the level of engagement, collaboration, and practice of rigorous research required of a transformative educational leader. Nor do team projects often offer the opportunity and time needed for deep, critical reflection necessary to explore the influence of one’s leadership approach on others and on effecting change within an organization where the knowledge and action outcomes really count. We believe that action research offers the potential for this type of learning experience.