What does a Professional Doctorate Portfolio look like?

Abstract

The ability to present doctoral work in a portfolio as opposed to a dissertation presents an opportunity to professional doctorate students to step outside the boundaries presented by the traditional approach to writing up research. This paper is about the utilisation of Maxwell and Kupczyk-Romanczuk's (2009) 'temple' analogy for the design of a doctoral portfolio. The portfolio was constructed within a framework adapted from a particular approach to writing up research within the author's own organisation and at the same time bounded by firm adherence to 'matrix' planning of the research project. Both the process and outcome of this approach are presented. The outcome was a collection of writings which, while varied in genre according to their purpose and audience, was given structure and coherence by the matrix, which was closely aligned to the temple architecture. Taking the path less travelled often means choosing a journey into the unknown. The purpose of this paper is to add to Maxwell and Kupczyk-Romanczuk's work through real-life exemplification of their temple model and assist future professional doctorate students map their own projects by highlighting the advantages of matrix planning and the versatility and benefits of the portfolio approach to presenting the research.