PhD in professional practice: psychological perspectives

This paper will explore the development and implementation of the PhD in Professional Practice: Psychological Perspectives offered by the Salomons Centre for Applied Psychology (Canterbury Christ Church University). This PhD is an innovative programme designed to support and integrate the professional development of practitioners in a wide range of fields and to bring benefits to the organisation in which they work. It is structured so as to enable an individualised programme of study and research for each candidate, based around a specific chosen theme within their area of professional practice. The programme requires the completion of a range of pieces of work linked to the chosen theme but focussing on different facets of the area and demonstrating a range of acquired skills and competencies. The five elements of the PhD portfolio: Critical Review of Literature, Small Scale Research Project, Applied Research Project, Report of Professional Practice and Reflective Account (a pulling together of the four elements into a coherent final submission) are chosen to both advance understanding and develop new skills, and be flexible enough to incorporate a broad range of topics. The PhD dissertation is a single submission of unmarked work. However, a system of formative reviews and presentations throughout the process supports practitioners in developing the requisite skills to submit a final thesis made up of the various elements. The rationale for this approach to a PhD was to provide practitioners who may not have had much research experience access to a process for developing their theoretical and evidence based expertise. It takes a developmental approach to the research experience offering support through a supervisory panel and learning sets which are linked to the competencies required at each phase of the research. Examples of current students’ work and challenges to structuring a PhD programme in this way will be explored.