Providing the framework for exploration and creation of knowledge in a DProf programme

As the introductory contribution to the Middlesex Symposium Dr Annette Fillery-Travis will critically engage with the pedagogical design of the Professional Doctorate Programme as a framework for reflective dialogue between advisory team and candidate that facilitates the exploration and creation of actionable knowledge within the practice of both (Brockbank and Mc Gill, 2006).
The Professional Doctorate at Middlesex University has developed over the last fifteen year with over 180 candidates either graduated or currently studying. It is an individually negotiated programme where the primary resource for the candidate is the one to one support of the academic advisor and the consultant. Within this paper the workbased learning design of the programme is described and its essential features which enable individual change to occur and the programme to provide high level professional development. I then consider the passionate and creative advanced practitioners that engage with the programme and how their practice is knowledge producing and validating in its own right enabling it to be described as epistemic. The engagement of these practitioners with research and enquiry is considered and specifically the relational aspects of both the focus of the research and the interaction with the supervisory team.
Finally the Professional Doctorate is considered in light of whether it is a vehicle for co-creation of actionable knowledge as defined by Antonacopoulou (2010). The result is not straightforward and requires a consideration of both the power distribution and leadership of the research activity. In the following contributions to this symposium two advisor-candidate pairs will discuss their experience in this doctoral programme. Hopefully this paper will have provided some context to the challenges they have experienced and the co-created knowledge they have produced.

Part of a symposium provided by Middlesex University entitled 'Professional doctorates: a possible model of knowledge co-production?'.