What real-life challenge in your professional practice demands deeper investigation? For EdD candidates, answering this question is often the first step toward doctoral study.
Many Doctor of Education (EdD) programs require applicants to submit what’s known as a problem of practice statement as part of the application process. This statement demonstrates your capacity to think critically about challenges, analyze root causes, and envision evidence-based solutions. It also becomes the lens through which you’ll engage in your studies, ultimately connecting your research to meaningful change in your professional setting.
This article will help you understand what makes a compelling problem of practice, walk you through the essential steps for developing your statement, and provide examples that illustrate strong approaches.
What Is a Problem of Practice?
A problem of practice is a real-world educational challenge that impacts teaching, learning outcomes, or professional development within a specific context. It’s not simply a complaint about what’s wrong in education, nor is it an abstract theoretical question better suited to traditional PhD research.
Strong problems of practice share several defining characteristics. First, they’re rooted in your professional context — they exist in your current work environment, whether that’s a classroom, school building, district office, or educational organization. Second, they’re actionable, meaning they can be improved through research, intervention, or policy change. Third, they’re learning-focused, directly affecting educational outcomes or professional growth. And finally, they’re context-specific, occurring in a particular setting with identifiable stakeholders.
Your problem of practice statement will serve multiple purposes in the application process. Most fundamentally, it will demonstrate your readiness for doctoral-level work by showing that you can move beyond identifying surface-level issues to conducting sophisticated analysis of complex challenges. Additionally, it can help establish alignment between your professional goals and a program’s specific focus areas.
Tips for Writing Your Problem of Practice Statement
A compelling problem of practice statement covers several critical dimensions. Consider the following as you develop your statement:
Identify a Challenge Rooted in Your Experience
Begin by reflecting on your current professional situation. What challenges consistently limit organizational effectiveness or student outcomes? Look for issues that keep surfacing despite various attempts to address them — these recurring problems often signal deeper systemic issues worth investigating.
Consider questions like: What obstacles prevent your organization from achieving its goals? Which students or groups are not thriving, and why? What initiatives have failed to gain traction? Where do you see the greatest gaps between current practice and desired outcomes?
Frame It as a Researchable Problem
Once you’ve identified a challenge, transform it from an observation into a researchable problem. This requires specificity and appropriate scope. Problems that are too broad can become unwieldy and impossible to address meaningfully. Problems that are too narrow may not warrant doctoral-level investigation or yield insights that apply beyond your immediate context.
Your problem should also be actionable within your sphere of influence. While you may not be able to eliminate poverty or completely restructure the education system, you can investigate how your organization responds to these larger forces and identify leverage points for meaningful change.
Explain the Significance and Impact
Make clear why this problem deserves attention by identifying who is affected and how. Be specific about the stakeholders (e.g., students, teachers, administrators, or families) and provide evidence of the problem’s existence and scope. This might include data on achievement gaps, retention rates, teacher turnover, program participation, or other measurable indicators.
Try to connect your specific problem to broader educational equity issues. How does this challenge relate to systemic inequities based on race, socioeconomic status, language, disability, or other factors? Consider both immediate and long-term consequences: What happens if this problem remains unaddressed? What opportunities are students missing? How might this challenge compound over time?
Conduct Root Cause Analysis
Move beyond describing symptoms to examining underlying causes. What systems, structures, policies, or assumptions contribute to this problem’s persistence? This analysis requires challenging your own thinking and questioning what you’ve taken for granted.
For example, if students from certain backgrounds consistently struggle in advanced courses, the root cause might not be student preparedness but rather deficit-based mindsets among educators, curriculum that doesn’t reflect diverse perspectives, or tracking systems that limit access. Avoid surface-level explanations that simply identify symptoms or place blame.
Envision Potential Solutions and Outcomes
While you don’t need a fully developed intervention plan in your application statement, you should articulate what change could look like. What specific actions might address this problem? What evidence-based practices or frameworks could inform your approach?
Demonstrate awareness of existing research and interventions. Consider what measurable improvements would indicate progress: How would you know if interventions were working? What outcomes would matter most to stakeholders? This forward-thinking approach shows you understand that problems of practice should lead to actionable improvements, not just theoretical insights.
Connect to Research and Evidence
Strong problem of practice statements reference existing research and demonstrate graduate-level thinking. This doesn’t mean conducting a full literature review, but rather showing awareness of relevant research, theoretical frameworks, or policy contexts that inform your problem.
For instance, if your problem involves technology integration, you might reference scholarship on the digital divide, implementation science, or teacher professional learning. These references signal that you’re prepared to engage with academic literature and contribute to scholarly conversations.
Keep It Concise, Focused, and Compelling
Most EdD programs set word limits for problem of practice statements, typically ranging from 500 to 1,000 words. The Johns Hopkins School of Education, for example, has a 750-word maximum. These limits demand clarity and precision — every sentence should serve a purpose.
Write in a professional academic voice that balances accessibility with intellectual rigor. Avoid jargon when simpler language works, but don’t shy away from discipline-specific terminology when appropriate. Your statement should be compelling enough to engage readers while demonstrating the analytical sophistication expected of doctoral candidates.
Problem of Practice Examples
The scenarios below are hypothetical examples designed to illustrate what effective problems of practice look like in different contexts. Your actual problem of practice statement will be more detailed and comprehensive (again, typically 500-1,000 words).
Scenario 1: Urban School Leadership and Instructional Equity
A high school principal in an urban district notices that despite significant investment in Advanced Placement courses, enrollment remains heavily skewed toward white and Asian students, while Black and Latino students are underrepresented. Her initial analysis reveals that tracking systems, teacher recommendations, and scheduling practices are creating barriers to access. So the principal decides her problem of practice will focus on dismantling these systemic barriers through policy change, professional development on asset-based student identification, and restructured pathways that presume competence rather than sort for perceived readiness.
Scenario 2: Technology Integration and Professional Learning
A district curriculum coordinator observes that despite substantial technology investments, including one-to-one device programs and learning management systems, most teachers use these tools primarily for administrative tasks rather than to transform instruction. So the coordinator decides his problem of practice will investigate why professional development hasn’t translated to meaningful implementation, examining factors like teacher self-efficacy, time for collaboration, competing initiatives, and misalignment between training models and actual classroom needs.
Scenario 3: Teacher Retention and Organizational Culture
An assistant superintendent notices that her district’s teacher retention rate has declined significantly over five years, a pattern reflected in national data on teacher turnover, with the sharpest drops among educators of color and those working in high-need schools. Exit interviews reveal concerns about inadequate support, limited voice in decision-making, and cultural disconnects. So the assistant superintendent determines that her problem of practice will examine how organizational structures and leadership practices either sustain or undermine teacher retention, particularly for educators from underrepresented backgrounds.
These examples demonstrate how problems of practice emerge from real professional contexts, affect specific stakeholders, invite systematic investigation, and connect to established bodies of research in areas like educational policy, curriculum studies, social context of education, or administration and leadership.
How to Strengthen Your Statement
As you develop your statement, seek feedback from colleagues, mentors, and leaders whose judgment you trust. They can help you determine whether your problem is appropriately scoped, clearly articulated, and genuinely researchable.
Review the research areas and specializations offered by the EdD program you’re considering to ensure alignment. For instance, the Johns Hopkins EdD program offers focus areas in entrepreneurial leadership in education, learning design and technology, neurodiversity and neuroeducation, and urban leadership. Understanding how your problem connects to one of these topics can strengthen your application.
Finally, consider how your problem relates to established research methodologies and theoretical frameworks. For example, problems focusing on policy implementation might draw on fields like education policy and politics or administration and leadership. Demonstrating this awareness shows you understand how your specific challenge fits within larger scholarly conversations.
Your Problem of Practice as a Foundation for Impact
At the end of the day, your problem of practice statement is more than an admissions requirement — it will become the foundation for years of focused inquiry that can transform your professional practice and create meaningful change for your students or your community.
Whether you’re exploring EdD programs like the one here at the Johns Hopkins School of Education or considering other options, take time to deeply examine the real challenges you encounter in your professional context. Remember, the problem you identify now will shape your doctoral journey and, ultimately, your capacity to lead transformational change in education.
Learn more about the Johns Hopkins Doctor of Education program, explore faculty research that aligns with your interests, and register for an upcoming information session to discover how doctoral study can increase your impact as an educational leader.
