Faculty in practitioner-oriented EdD programs must continually defend the presence of rigor in their programs. The existence of rigor determines the preparedness of our educational leaders to disrupt and transform educational organizations to bring about equitable and socially just outcomes; however, perceptions of rigor by the larger community impact the overall success of these programs and their students. In this conceptual article, we discuss the ways in which the literature defines rigor within and beyond practitioner-oriented EdD programs. We integrate that the literature with the critical need for social justice leadership, and leadership preparation toward that end, to offer a conceptual framework for designing, assessing, improving, communicating, and defending the rigor of EdD programs centered upon social justice. We posit: EdD programs can claim to be rigorous and centered upon social justice if their faculty: (1) collectively envision and construct rigorous student learning outcomes (rigor as a challenge) connected to the learning of critical theory and the demonstration of critical praxis to improve the lives of marginalized/underserved students; and (2) use backward-design to develop and align curriculum and pedagogy with those outcomes, including scholarly learning experiences (rigor in research) and the elicitation of students’ critical thinking (rigor as complexity).

以从业者为导向的 EdD 课程的教职员工必须不断捍卫其课程中的严谨性。严谨的存在决定了我们的教育领导者是否准备好破坏和改造教育组织，以实现公平和社会公正的结果；然而，更大社区对严谨性的看法会影响这些项目及其学生的整体成功。在这篇概念性文章中，我们讨论了文献在以实践者为导向的 EdD 计划内外定义严谨性的方式。我们将这些文献与社会正义领导的迫切需求以及为此目的的领导准备相结合，为设计、评估、改进、交流和捍卫以社会正义为中心的教育发展计划的严格性提供了一个概念框架。我们假设：如果他们的教职员工：(1) 共同设想和构建严格的学生学习成果（严格作为挑战），与批判理论的学习和批判实践的示范相关联，以改善生活边缘化/服务不足的学生；(2) 使用逆向设计来开发课程和教学法并使之与这些成果保持一致，包括学术学习经验（研究的严谨性）和激发学生的批判性思维（严谨性与复杂性）。(1) 共同设想和构建与批判理论学习和批判实践示范相关的严格的学生学习成果（严谨是一种挑战），以改善边缘化/服务不足学生的生活；(2) 使用逆向设计来开发课程和教学法并使之与这些成果保持一致，包括学术学习经验（研究的严谨性）和激发学生的批判性思维（严谨性与复杂性）。(1) 共同设想和构建与批判理论学习和批判实践示范相关的严格的学生学习成果（严谨是一种挑战），以改善边缘化/服务不足学生的生活；(2) 使用逆向设计来开发课程和教学法并使其与这些成果保持一致，包括学术学习经验（研究的严谨性）和激发学生的批判性思维（严谨性与复杂性）。