Differentiation and Integration: Managing the Paradox in Doctoral Education

Abstract

We review the two dominant models of doctoral education, and argue that both of them are limited in their effectiveness by excessive differentiation. The traditional doctoral model is characterized by highly specialized faculty training new academics; the new wave of professional doctorates is characterized by disaggregated faculty roles, standardized curricula, and a managerial culture. Both models overemphasize differentiation, albeit for different reasons, with negative impacts on student completion, faculty engagement, and needs of the larger society. Differentiation is an antagonistic force to effective integration, and in this chapter we describe how one program, Antioch University’s PhD in Leadership & Change, intentionally holds this essential tension by: (1) optimizing faculty’s professional expertise while nurturing collective responsibility; (2) ensuring both individual and organizational efficacy; and (3) nurturing a culture of critical reflection. By intentionally restoring equilibrium through effective integrating devices, doctoral programs can mediate the excesses of extreme differentiation in ways that benefit individual and organizational health, student learning, and ultimately society as a whole.

Citation

Wergin, J.F. and Alexandre, L. (2016), "Differentiation and Integration: Managing the Paradox in Doctoral Education", Emerging Directions in Doctoral Education (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Vol. 6), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 225-242. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-364120160000006019