Fighting for space in supervision: fantasies,fairytales, fictions and fallacies

In higher education the supervision of graduate research students is an uncertain practice. When given the opportunity, supervisors and students ask what it means and how it should be done. In this paper, the author interprets the uncertain state of supervision affairs as an effect of many competing and contradictory social discourses that offer us more ways of making sense of supervision than in the past. Each discourse figures its Loyal Supervisor and Student, its ‘Proper’ Supervision, in particular ways. These are the multiple and contradictory fantasies, fairytales, fictions and fallacies of the title. First each discourse is described and then a close reading is given of some extracts of data from the author's research with Master's students and their supervisors to illustrate various discourses at work. Finally, there is discussion of which discourses are the most powerful at the present time and some implications, both dangers and fruitful possibilities, of the author's interpretation are suggested.     

Value System Similarity and the Supervisory Relationship

This study assesses the value systems held by supervisors and supervisees in the counseling practice. The relation between value system similarity and two dependent measures was examined; the level of communication within and the overall satisfaction with the relationship. Participants included 37 student supervisees and seven supervisors in a master's program. Correlation coefficients were computed to establish the relationships between the dependent measures and between value similarity measures and the dependent variables. The results did not indicate a meaningful relation between the similarity of value systems for supervisee and supervisor and either dependent measure. The results, however, did indicate a strong relationship between the supervisee's satisfaction with the supervisory relationship and the level of communication that was developed in supervision.     

School Counseling Site Supervisor Training: An Exploratory Study

This study explored the supervision training needs of site supervisors of master's program school counseling interns via the construct of self‐efficacy. Using the Site Supervisor Self‐Efficacy Survey developed for this study, the authors surveyed school counseling site supervisors in the states of Oregon and Washington (N = 147) regarding their hours of supervision training and their supervisor self‐efficacy. Results indicated that 54% of school counseling site supervisors had little or no counseling supervision training. Supervisor self‐efficacy appeared to be relatively strong, consistently so for school counseling site supervisors with over 40 hours of supervision training. A partial correlation indicated a slightly positive relationship between the hours of supervision training received and perceived self‐efficacy regarding supervision. Implications regarding school counseling site supervisor training and future research are offered.     

“行风监督员”制度改革浅谈

现行行风监督员在履行监督职责时存在着许多问题：人员组成没有代表性、监督员工作热情不高、所聘部门疏于管理等。要使行风监督工作真正行之有效,行风监督员制度必须改革。在社会开放程度越来越高的形势下,用行风监督志愿者替代行风监督员不失为一种好方法。搞好行风监督志愿者队伍建设,关键是要制定好行之有效的措施。     

The relation between feedback perceptions and the supervisor–student relationship in master's thesis projects

Research supervision can be investigated from social–emotional and cognitive perspectives, but most studies include only one perspective. This study aims to understand the interplay between a social–emotional (supervisor–student relationship) and cognitive (feedback) perspective on the outcomes of master's thesis supervision in specific, by investigating student perceptions of both perspectives. Questionnaire data (N?=?1016) were collected and analysed using regression analyses. For student satisfaction (SS) and students' perceived supervisor contribution to learning (PSCL), affiliation by far is most important, followed by control for SS and feedback-forward for PSCL. Also, interaction effects between feedback and interpersonal perceptions were found, indicating that the role of feedback perceptions is most important in situations in which no optimal supervisor–student relationship could be established. Findings imply the importance for master's thesis supervisors of creating friendly and helping relationships with students and if this is problematic, extra care should be taken with giving feedback.     

Styles of Counselor Supervision as Perceived by Supervisors and Supervisees

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the preferences of supervisors and supervisees for 4 styles of counselor supervision and the perceived frequency of use of the 4 styles during a 10‐week supervision experience. The styles are labeled directive teacher, supportive teacher, counselor, and consultant. Data collected using 90 doctoral student supervisors and 168 master's‐degree student supervisees showed significant correlations among the styles. Implications for the process of counselor supervision are offered.     

Characteristics of the research supervision of postgraduate teachers’ action research

Today, many institutions of higher education support students in conducting practice-oriented research. This research refers to a broad array of approaches geared toward practitioners’ practice. The supervision of such research is of crucial importance, but little is known about its nature and characteristics. This study examined what research supervisors and postgraduate, in-service teacher students perceive are key elements of successful action research supervision. Four action research supervisors and eight postgraduate students were interviewed. Data were analysed by using theory and empirical data. Findings reveal 24 key elements of action research supervision, which refer to supervisors’ (1) skills in supporting knowledge development through and about action research and creating a supportive environment for developing knowledge, (2) knowledge and expertise in supervising action research, (3) attitude in the supervision of action research and (4) the motives driving supervisors’ actions in the student-supervisor relationship.     

An Attributional Approach to Counselor Supervision

The supervision process is examined from an attributional perspective. Counselor supervision is conceptualized as an interactional process in which trainees learn to describe and manage cause-effect relationships. Attribution theory from the social psychological literature is reviewed, and common biases and errors in the attribution process are discussed in terms of their relationship to supervision. Finally, several interventions are proposed to help supervisors minimize the influence of these attributional biases on their own and their trainees' perceptions and behaviors.     

The Impact of University of Zululand Structural and Cultural Contexts on Postgraduate Supervision Practice (2011–2016)

There is a constant interplay between the “people” (agency) and the “parts” (structure and culture), not only in teaching and learning, but also in postgraduate supervision practices globally. However, in South Africa, the tendency to use structure (higher education architecture, institutional history, institutional rules, policies and procedures) to address all challenges related to postgraduate (especially doctoral) studies has resulted in university managers ignoring the role that institutional research culture (social norms, expectations and practice) plays, not only in perpetuating some of these challenges, but also in understanding and resolving them. At the University of Zululand (UniZulu), these factors combine to affect not only the postgraduate supervision practices of supervisors, but also the quality of doctoral throughput (doctorateness) with overall implications for society in general. This article is a critical self-reflection on the author’s postgraduate supervision practice at UniZulu between 2011 and 2016 with a view to highlight how structure and culture combine to impact on his supervision work at the institution. The discussion shows how these factors impact on the quality of doctoral output with implications for the author’s practice and society in general. To deal with the challenges arising from the discussion, the article recommends: establishing a dedicated postgraduate studies unit headed by a director or dean as supervisors and supervisees need a support system that functions optimally; improving staff qualifications and training of supervisors to keep up with best practice in postgraduate supervision; and the Department of Higher Education and Training factoring differentiation realities into its funding modules for universities.     

A Bourdieusian perspective on becoming and being a postgraduate supervisor: the role of capital

The objective of this paper is to map the role of capital in the process of learning to become a postgraduate supervisor. Economic, technological and geopolitical changes in higher education call into question previous assumptions about supervision. Supervision is no longer primarily seen as an intellectual and social enterprise but is increasingly seen as professional work, where one's capital (or lack of) shapes the process of being and becoming a supervisor. It is frequently assumed that the students are the only ones learning in a supervisory relationship. Novice supervisors are, however, often left to their own devices to discover or learn the inherent rules, epistemologies and ontologies in becoming and being supervisors through a process of compromise and negotiation. In this article, we specifically focus on the need for novice supervisors to understand and navigate the field, and plot their career trajectories, as a constant exchange of different aspects of capital. This article is conceptual, rather than empirical. We suggest that it may be helpful to understand the field of supervision in a Bourdieusian sense, with specific reference to the role of (academic) capital in the formative processes of becoming and being a supervisor. We discuss social capital, gender and race, age, values, beliefs and experiences, as well as linguistic abilities, as factors influencing the individual habitus of the supervisor in relation to the doxa of the field.     

国有企业公司化改制后监督机制的选择

本文针对国有企业公司化改制后监督弱化的情况 ,分析了影响公司监督机制运行的主要因素 ,认为剩余控制权的行使影响着监督机关组成结构的选择 ,只有拥有剩余控制权的人的监督才是有激励的。监督权的核心内容是对人的监督 ,监督的重点是对经营者违法犯罪行为的监督。法律应当合理地配置监督者并给予监督者更多的关怀 ,以降低监督成本。     

Mapping the Pleasures and Risks of Supervision

Good supervision is central to successful graduate research, yet it is a pedagogy that is poorly understood. This may be one reason why it is often experienced as problematic, especially by students. To address these concerns, in this paper I delineate a map of supervision which is informed by contemporary theories of education. As I describe the layers of the map, I will attempt to show traces of each layer in some texts from the supervision of a master's student. The fruit of my analysis is a view of supervision as a complex and unstable process, one filled with pleasures and risks. This view is potentially useful for informing the practices of supervisors, students and the academic advisors who work with them.     

The (d)(t)oxic lifeworld of early career postgraduate supervisors

In the context of higher education as social space or field in the Bourdieusian sense, exploring the lived experiences of early career postgraduate supervisors allow us to (re)consider the institutionalised rhythms, procedures and practices that shape graduate supervision. At the intersections of, inter alia, increasing numbers postgraduate students, the urgent need to transform SA higher education, and the need for appropriately qualified and experienced supervisors, many early career postgraduate supervisors are caught between understanding the doxa and orthodoxy shaping postgraduate supervision, and the necessary symbolic capital to formulate, engage with and practice heterodoxy. This article employs Bourdieu’s doxic schema (doxa, orthodoxy and heterodoxy) along with symbolic capital to make visible the doxic lifeworld experiences and journeys of early career supervisors. The research found that early career supervisors are often under-prepared, lacking symbolic capital and experiencing (toxic) shame.     

发达国家教育督导制度的比较及启示

教育督导就是对教育工作进行监督，检查，评价和指导，从发达国家教育督导制度的发展情况来看，许多国家都将教育督导视为教育行政管理的重大支柱之一，尽管各国的教育管理体制有所不同，但在建立和完善教育督导制度的过程中，却存有一些共同的做法，主要是重视和加强督导工作，设立专门的督导机构，明确督导职责，严格选拔督导人员，采用灵活多样的督导方式，具有严密的督导程序，通过立法确立了完整，系统的督导制度，我国应当借鉴发达国家教育督导的基本经验，加强督导立法，完善督导法规，明确各级督导机构职责，严格选拔督导人员，全面提高督导人员素质，改善监督职能，强化指导职能。     

Trainees' Expectations for the Supervisory Process: Testing a Developmental Model

Based on Stoltenberg's developmental theory and the literature on supervision as a social influence process, a prediction model of trainees' general expectations for the supervisory process was tested. Beginning and advanced practicum students and interns completed a self-efficacy inventory and indicated their outcome expectancies for supervision with respect to their own and their clients' development. Dependent variables were expectations for supervisors' attributes (expertness, attractiveness, trustworthiness) and role (evaluation, support). All of these process dimensions were significantly predicted from trainees' self-efficacy and outcome expectancies, while level of training was of minimal predictive value. In general, trainees expected supervisors to be significantly more trustworthy than expert, more expert than attractive, and more evaluative than supportive.     

A Study of Experimental Methods for Teaching Emotionally Disturbed,Brain Damaged,Retarded Readers

Abstract

A study was conducted to investigate possible differences in verbal exchanges between supervisors and teachers contrasting clinical supervision and traditional supervision. Past study of supervisors indicated that they were predominantly authoritarian in their relationships with teachers. Clinical supervision was hypothesized to create a more democratic relationship as revealed by the verbal interaction. Seven supervisors each worked with one teacher in the clinical pattern and one in the traditional pattern. Their post-observation conferences were taped and analyzed by trained observers using Blumberg's A System for Analyzing Supervisor Teacher Interaction. Univariate ANOVA analysis of the data revealed a significant difference between the treatment groups favoring the clinical supervision style. Teachers responding on a semantic differential scale also favored the clinical supervision style.     

Supervision of Counselor Licensure Applicants: A Comparative Study

A survey of supervisors of counselor licensure applicants in two states indicated that a state board's supervision regulations do have some impact on the practice of supervision.     

Adaptive research supervision: exploring expert thesis supervisors' practical knowledge

Several researchers have suggested the importance of being responsive to students' needs in research supervision. Adapting support strategies to students' needs in light of the goals of a task is referred to as adaptivity. In the present study, the practice of adaptivity is explored by interviewing expert thesis supervisors about diagnosing student characteristics in order to determine students' needs and concurrent adaptive support strategies. The findings suggest that next to competence, supervisors also diagnose elements of students' determination and context. With respect to support strategies, it is suggested that supervisors adapt to student needs in terms of explicating standards, quality or consequences, division of responsibilities, providing more/less critical feedback and sympathising. The complexity of the relationship between diagnosing student characteristics and adapting support strategies is illustrated and needs further study.     

教育督导：问题与辨析

教育督导是国家对教育工作实施有效管理的重要手段.但目前人们对教育督导机构的性质、督导过程、督导职能及督导评价等本源性问题缺乏深度的认识和深入的探讨.从教育督导的本质、国外教育督导的趋势和我国教育督导的实际来看,教育督导机构应保持相对独立;督导主要发挥监督执行的职能;督导应贯穿管理全程;督导应基于客观事实来进行评定.     

Anticipating doctoral supervision: (Not) bridging the transition from supervisee to supervisor

Building on existing studies that ask doctoral supervisors how they understand their role, and what has influenced this understanding, this article explores invitations that are issued to supervisors to reflect in certain ways about the role of supervisor. The article calls into question the ways in which supervisors are invited to think about and represent supervision, by professional development courses, handbooks on supervision, and the questions that researchers pose about supervision. This discussion is situated in autoethnographic analysis of a valuable moment in the author's academic career for reflecting on these factors: the author is positioned directly between the role of doctoral supervisee and the role of doctoral supervisor. Through autoethnographic engagement with doctoral supervision literature, the article argues that professional development for supervisors would benefit from more critical analysis of the invitations which are issued to supervisors to reflect on the transition from supervisee to supervisor.