Pedagogic relations and professional change: a sociocultural analysis of students' learning in a professional doctorate

The Professional Doctorate has become an increasingly popular doctoral route. Research has tended to focus on outcomes and ‘impact’ or on the epistemological nature of programmes and resulting student identities compared to other routes. This paper takes a different focus, examining the process through which students come to know about their professional practice via a Professional Doctorate in Education programme. It uses two cases, drawn from a wider, interpretive study of students’ learning experiences, to illustrate the complex and differing pedagogic relations that students develop across multiple spaces. The analysis uses activity theory and elements of community of practice theory to understand the various practices of students, their interrelationship with ‘the programme’ and the many factors that affect the way they can engage in ‘professional’ doctoral study. The paper concludes with a discussion of potential implications for the organisation of PDs as they relate to pedagogy.