The aim of this paper is to focus on the distinctiveness of the Professional doctorate in education (EdD) located in the development of higher education (HE) in England using Bourdieu's theory of practice. It does this by building on a previous paper published in this journal, "The Distinctiveness of the EdD in the University Tradition" (vol. 38, no. 3, 2006: 323-34). The paper uses Bourdieusian analysis to reveal the extent to which capital may have been misrecognized within HE. It then argues that the EdD may have developed within HE because it has the potential to recognize capital, previously misrecognized. Therefore, the EdD may be considered distinctive because it engages with issues surrounding social justice in terms of inclusion. Moreover, it may be argued that the EdD presents opportunities for educational practitioners to produce and transform knowledge, thus shaping the processes that structure what they can and cannot know and do. (Contains 86 notes.)