Interview with Maida Finch, Ph.D. - Program Director for the Doctor of Education in Literary Studies at Salisbury University

About Maida Finch, Ph.D.: Maida Finch is the Program Director for Salisbury University’s Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Literacy Studies. She also teaches courses as a Professor within the Department of Leadership and Literacy Studies. As Program Director, Dr. Finch oversees student recruitment and admissions, collaborates with faculty to design and schedule classes, and coordinates events for students and individuals interested in the program. Within the Ed.D. program, Dr. Finch teaches courses on the social context of literacy, as well as how scholar practitioners can design and conduct pilot studies to investigate problems of practice.

Dr. Finch’s research emphases lie in practitioner research, particularly in K-12 contexts. She is also interested in establishing research partnerships with schools, the role of school libraries and librarians in literacy instruction, and education policy. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from Boston College, her Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Colorado Boulder, and her Ph.D. in Leadership and Policy Studies from Vanderbilt University.

Interview Questions

[OnlineEdDPrograms.com] May we have an overview of Salisbury University’s online Doctor of Education in Literacy Studies? How does this program prepare students to design, implement, assess, and improve literacy programming and communication practices in educational settings?

[Dr. Maida Finch] In the program, we advance sociocultural perspectives of literacy as being inherently tied to social practices, in that it is the foundation of how we communicate and make sense of the world. Literacy is impacted by the historical, societal, cultural, and political contexts in which we all live and interact. Our students are prepared to investigate and solve the complex problems of literacy practice that they encounter in their professions. The curriculum for our program is not restricted to a narrow view of teaching and learning and assessment within a classroom environment — it is broader than that. Many of our students do come from K-12 settings, but not all of them.

In the coursework, we look at sociocultural perspectives, as well as sociocognitive and critical theory. Those are the predominant theories in the field of literacy today. We also take a step back and talk about when there was a greater focus on cognitive theory in literacy studies, so that everybody understands the full scope of the field. We look at literacy in terms of comprehension, writing, and assessment, but also in terms of policy, oral discourse, cognition, diversity, and the social contexts of literacy development.

Students also take a substantial course sequence on methods, including an introductory course on research design. They take a qualitative methods course and a quantitative methods course, after which they can choose an advanced studies course in either quantitative or qualitative research that will inform their Pilot Project, which they complete prior to their dissertation. Most of our students choose qualitative research, but some elect to take our quantitative course that focuses on survey research.

The program is designed to be completed in four years, and the first three years are coursework. When students get to the end of their second year, we assign them a faculty mentor who will then be with them for the remainder of their doctoral program. One of the first things students do with their mentor is work with them to develop their focal area of interest, because then they take a literature review class, called Research Seminar I: Writing the Literature Review. In this class, students conduct a personalized literature review about their topic of interest that they have developed with their mentor. From there, they move into their advanced methods course, which helps to prepare them for their Pilot Project, which is an essential step towards developing their dissertation.

[OnlineEdDPrograms.com] Salisbury University has been a member of the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) since 2014. Could you elaborate on the process the program faculty took to incorporate CPED’s frameworks and principles into the online Ed.D. in Literacy Studies? How has the Ed.D. program evolved since Salisbury University joined CPED, and how have CPED’s values, mission, and networks informed this evolution?

[Dr. Maida Finch] We used the CPED Framework to inform our initial design of the program in 2014. Their principles guided our considerations for the courses and our overall expectations for what students were going to do in our Ed.D. program, versus a Ph.D. program. CPED’s resources and guidelines were really helpful for us in terms of thinking through the distinctions. Then, in 2018, we developed our Student Learning Objectives (SLOs), which we have incorporated throughout the curriculum, and which align with CPED’s Guiding Principles and Design Concepts.

When you look at our SLOs, you can see CPED’s influence, and you can also see how we have incorporated a literacy focus within CPED’s Guiding Principles. For example, one of our SLOs is that candidates must “demonstrate the ability to ground professional practice in literacy theory and research.” On CPED’s website, they discuss the importance of integrating theory and research, but their guidelines are not specific to literacy, as they are a template for Ed.D. programs of multiple specializations.

In 2023, we moved the program fully online. CPED has what are called CPED Improvement Groups, or CIGs, and one of them focuses on online and hybrid programs. We participated in this group to help us think through implementing our program fully online. CPED also has an annual convening that we try to attend. I am the delegate, and we also try to have other faculty in the program attend, as funding and their availability allow. CPED has many online meetings that are convenient and informative, and I attend many of those.

[OnlineEdDPrograms.com] How does Salisbury University’s online Doctor of Education in Literacy Studies facilitate interactions between students and faculty, and foster a strong learning environment for students?

[Dr. Maida Finch] When we went fully online in fall of 2023, we made an intentional decision to hold synchronous class meetings via Zoom. Being a synchronous program was important to us because we believe that allows for individualized attention from faculty members and fosters a learning community within the cohort. We admit students once a year, and students stay together throughout the program; we feel that the synchronized modality is essential in encouraging students to develop cohesiveness within their cohort.

We meet via Zoom once a week, and our courses are seven weeks long. That was another deliberate choice that we made. Prior to that, our courses were running for 15 weeks, with students taking two courses a semester, which was hard for working professionals. Now, we have shifted to seven-week courses so that students can focus on one course at a time, and meet once a week, which helps them to balance their work and their studies.

In our Zoom classes, we designed students’ experience to be as close to an in-person classroom experience as possible. Whatever activities students might do in a face-to-face class, they are doing online. For example, we use breakout rooms for small-group discussions. Our learning management system is Canvas, so we also have virtual classroom capabilities from Canvas that we can use. In addition, we incorporate OneDrive so that students can collaborate on documents; for example, students can work on something at the same time while in class. There is a lot of interaction going on.

In one of the courses that I taught, students were bringing in drafts of their writing, reading through each other’s work, and giving each other feedback in real-time. The synchronous nature of our program has resulted in tight-knit and productive relationships between students, as well as between students and their faculty mentors.

[OnlineEdDPrograms.com] Students of Salisbury University’s online Doctor of Education in Literacy Studies must take and pass a Preliminary Examination. Could you explain what this exam entails and how it helps students prepare for their subsequent dissertation work?

[Dr. Maida Finch] At the conclusion of their advanced research methods course, students take their Preliminary Exam, during which they present a proposal for their Pilot Project to a faculty committee. Students work in conjunction with their advisor and with their instructor to design a pilot study that is relevant to their research interests, and which helps provide scaffolding for their future dissertation. During their preparation, students receive a lot of mentoring and instruction, but for the examination, they must be able to explain their study design so that we feel confident they know what they are doing.

The Preliminary Examination is a pass/fail outcome. If students pass, then they are allowed to implement the pilot study the following semester, and that is one of the courses I teach, which is Research Seminar II: Conducting a Pilot Project. In this course, students focus on each stage of implementing their pilot study, which will ultimately lead to their dissertation proposal.

At the conclusion of Research Seminar II, students must complete another oral presentation to a faculty committee, where they explain what happened during their project and their findings. They are also expected to have some reflective questions about what they think their strengths are, areas where they are still developing, and what their thoughts are about moving to the dissertation. This presentation is called the Comprehensive Exam, which students have to pass in order to achieve Doctoral Candidacy Status and continue on to their dissertation work.

[OnlineEdDPrograms.com] Could you explain how the Pilot Project supports students in their Dissertation journey? What kinds of issues have students explored in their Dissertation work?

[Dr. Maida Finch] The Pilot Project is designed to lead students towards their dissertation topic, and to help them refine their thoughts on what they want to investigate. As a result, their pilot study and their dissertation often overlap in terms of the questions students ask themselves. An example of this is one student who was interested in how school librarians implement culturally responsive literacy instruction. For her pilot study, she developed a survey that she sent out to librarians in our local area, which is Maryland. For her dissertation, she made some refinements to her survey and implemented it on a national scale using social media.

Another example of a dissertation topic is one of our students who worked in higher education, specifically in a medical lab science (MLS) program. Medical lab scientists read all the bloodwork and labwork that comes in as a core part of their job. They need to connect the data that labs reveal to peoples’ health. Our student taught in this program at her school, and for her dissertation, she wanted to learn more about the specific reading and writing practices that MLS professionals use to engage in their work. She used a method called the Delphi method, where she started out by recruiting professionals in the field who responded to the open-ended questions, “What reading practices do you engage in when you’re doing this type of work? What are the writing practices that you use?”

From the responses to these questions, she narrowed her focus and ultimately created a survey that she distributed to a wider audience, where she outlined, “Here are the literacy practices that have been identified. Which ones are you implementing in your job, and with what frequency?” This student’s dissertation is a great example of what we are trying to achieve in our program: we are encouraging students to think about how literacy impacts what they are doing, and where they see literacy coming up in their professional lives and spheres of influence.

For a final example, another student who is a literary curriculum supervisor in her district wanted to know how teachers engage in professional learning about writing instruction. For her study, she thought about her research question in two ways. She thought about the actual writing instruction aspect, such as the content teachers were teaching about writing, and she also thought about the teachers’ experiences with professional learning and what was valuable and meaningful to them. For her Pilot Project, she interviewed and collected several artifacts to find out what teachers valued in terms of their professional learning and development — what types of structures, activities, etc. resonated with them the most.

From there, for her dissertation research, she invited teachers to participate in a professional learning group where they designed what they wanted to do. Rather than having someone come in and deliver a professional learning experience from the outside, she helped facilitate the teachers designing their own professional learning program, one that covered what they actually wanted to study and try out in their classrooms. It was fascinating seeing how she took this approach to helping teachers improve their practice while also empowering them to guide how that happened.

[OnlineEdDPrograms.com] What role does faculty mentorship play in Salisbury University’s online Doctor of Education in Literacy Studies? How can students make the most of these mentorship opportunities and support systems?

[Dr. Maida Finch] Students are assigned a faculty mentor right before they start their literature review class, as mentioned. Most of them, at that point, have ideas on what they want to research for their dissertation. So the first point of mentorship is where their faculty advisor helps them to refine their research interests, because sometimes students’ initial research question or area of interest can be quite broad. This initial work is done via Zoom, synchronously, through individual meetings. Occasionally, a faculty mentor might have a few students meet all together, just so there is a more fruitful exchange of ideas across students whose research interests might intersect. However, primarily, this faculty-to-student mentorship is one-on-one.

When students are designing their study and taking the advanced methods course, and when they are implementing their pilot study in Research Seminar II, mentors are meeting with them at least four times a semester to work with them and to see how things are going. That is in addition to their weekly synchronous meetings with the course instructor. In fact, both the advanced research methods course and the course where students implement their pilot study are four credits, because students are expected to meet with their advisor throughout the course in addition to attending their Zoom classes with their cohort.

When students move on to their dissertation, we are typically meeting with them once a week. Occasionally, depending on where they are in the process, it might be every other week, but it is more common that their faculty mentors are meeting them every week to support them throughout the whole process. The dissertation committee members also meet with the student at multiple points throughout the process. We do this to ensure the entire committee is engaged with the student’s research.

I also want to note that our faculty actively look for opportunities to co-author and co-present with students; there are several publications we have produced where students and faculty have collaborated on exciting work. In fact, we took four of our students to the European Conference on Literacy in Greece this year, where they presented their research. Program faculty also attend conferences hosted by the Literacy Research Association and National Council of Teachers of English, as well as others, in order to look for ways to bring opportunities to our students, both in terms of working with us on research and sharing and presenting their own research. Furthermore, we typically have two graduate assistant positions, which afford additional opportunities for collaborative research between faculty and students.

[OnlineEdDPrograms.com] For students interested in Salisbury University’s online Doctor of Education in Literacy Studies, what advice do you have in terms of submitting a competitive application?

[Dr. Maida Finch] We take a holistic approach. We do not require test scores, but we do ask for a professional writing sample, written letters of recommendation, transcripts, and a statement of interest. We look across all of those application elements to get a sense of who these individuals are, what their desired career path is, and how they would fit into our program. We really home in on that statement of interest because we want to make sure that they have thought deeply about what our program offers, and how that aligns with their professional goals. We look for them to answer the questions, “What is it about literacy and literacy practices that are most important to you in your role? How do you think the doctoral program will help you develop your knowledge base further?”

We do not expect that everybody wants to change their job title or move into a position such as a principal, superintendent, or faculty leadership. Some of our graduates want to remain classroom teachers, and one of them was the teacher of the year in her district last year. We do not expect or try to get them to move somewhere else. What we do want to see is that they have thought about how this program is going to enrich their professional lives and their impact as educators. And of course, if they do want to advance in their career, we help support them with that goal.

All applicants must have a master’s degree, and one of the things that we specifically look for is that their master’s degree is in a field related to education or literacy. If it is not, that is a potential red flag, and in those cases, we are really looking at their statement of interest to make sure they have got a sense of what they are doing, and are not just applying because it is an online doctoral program. We want to make sure they know that this program is literacy focused, and what that means. A couple of times, we have gotten applications and have asked the applicant to revise their statement of interest. We ask them, “Can you try to explain a little bit more what it is about our program and a literacy focus that is interesting to you?”

[OnlineEdDPrograms.com] What makes Salisbury University’s online Doctor of Education in Literacy Studies unique and a particularly strong graduate degree option for students? How does this program prepare students for advanced and impactful careers as literacy leaders and agents of change across diverse academic contexts?

[Dr. Maida Finch] I believe it is the mentoring that our students receive. We work really hard to meet students where they are and to support them throughout their dissertation journey. Our students come into the program with a diversity of strengths, areas where they need more support, and professional and academic experiences. We strive to offer individualized mentoring that draws on students’ strengths and then helps them develop the practices they need to be successful in the program. We spend a lot of time working with our students, both when they are in classes as course instructors, and then when they become our research mentees.

Our students form very strong cohort bonds, and many of them stay in touch after the program. Often, they create text groups that they use throughout their program, and even after they graduate. Sometimes, one of our students takes longer than four years to finish the program, because they are working professionals, and all sorts of things can come up to get you off track for a little bit. What is really great to see is students telling me, “I still have my cohort, even after they’ve graduated. They’re still encouraging me. I’m going to finish.” Students and graduates show up for each other’s dissertation defenses, which is wonderful.

Our support of students as faculty also continues beyond their graduation. We tell them that if they are out on the job market, even if has been a couple years, we are more than happy to meet with them and help support them through letters of recommendations, or finding ways to collaborate with them, if they want to do so.

Another thing that I would highlight is that we have a very strong focus on scholarly writing. We recognize that, for many of our practitioners, they do not have much experience with the type of writing that is expected in higher education and scholarly publications, so we have a class specifically about scholarly writing in our curriculum. Salisbury University’s writing center offers support for graduate students online, so that is another great resource that can be accessed remotely. In addition, this is the second year that we have offered a winter writing retreat. For a long weekend, students come together and spend time writing and peer-reviewing each other’s work, and they can also meet with faculty mentors if they want to. I believe that is another unique aspect of our program — our focused attention on scholarly writing, because it is an area where education practitioners often need support.

Our commitment to giving students an enriching educational experience that empowers them to apply advanced literacy research and writing practices towards improving their practice makes our program stand out.

Thank you, Dr. Maida Finch, for your detailed and thoughtful discussion about what makes Salisbury University’s online Ed.D. in Literacy Studies a strong option for scholar practitioners!