The Dissertation
Students and faculty in our Ed.D. Leadership Program are dedicated to studying problems of practice. During the third year of our program, all of our doctoral students are expected to complete and defend a "dissertation-in-practice."
For examples of completed SJSU Ed.D. dissertations, please follow the link below.
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_dissertations/
Our Ed.D. graduates have completed original research focusing
on salient issues impacting schools, students, and communities across Silicon Valley,
California and global contexts.
All SJSU Ed.D. dissertations follow the College of Graduate Studies Thesis and Dissertation Guide. The link below provides the Google site that has been designed to provide students with all of the information they will need to know to complete their dissertation process for graduation. It includes the Thesis Guidelines, required forms, formatting rules, submission, fees for extra services provided by our non-profit partner, Montezuma Publishing, publication, policies, and resources. Click on each heading for complete information under the topic.
https://sites.google.com/sjsu.edu/thesisdissertationguide2021-22/thesis-and-dissertation-guide
The Ed.D. program at San Jose State also offers students a unique
opportunity to produce a documentary film as part of their dissertation. Producing
a documentary enables students to produce a film which explores a
diverse range of social justice topics, capturing the voices of those who might
otherwise not be heard, and telling stories which might otherwise be recognized.
The films offer the opportunity to both showcase a broad range of interview
subjects, but also record actions and other visuals which help explain the issue
being addressed. Finished documentaries also enable doctoral student
researchers to reach and engage a wider audience than might otherwise be
possible.
Resources
Documentaries offer researchers a medium to bring out different voices and reach out to a larger and wider audience thus democratizing research. Films offer a venue for unheard voices to be heard and illuminate social justice issues. It also helps researchers engage video participants as creators of knowledge rather than just subjects. Using documentary filming in the research process provides the audience also an opportunity to analyze and interpret the data and delve into meaning-making. Documentary film can be used as an alternate form of scholarly work and knowledge that has a much a wider reach beyond the boundaries of academia.
Students choosing this option are not required to have prior documentary or film production experience, as this is taught as part of the documentary production process. The Ed.D. program provides all necessary camera and other production equipment. Ed.D. students choosing to produce a documentary film complete a written review of the literature around their chosen topic as well as a methodology chapter explaining the rationale and documentary filming methods that will be employed during the course of producing their film.
