Supervision of Higher Degree Students — Problem Areas and Possible Solutions

Supervision of postgraduate students remains an area of concern to university administration, to supervisors, to student unions and the individual research student. Many studies have examined student dissatisfaction with supervision. However, there is also considerable uneasiness among academic staff about the extent of their supervisory role and functions. In a series of workshops in several tertiary institutions problem areas were discussed with supervisors, both experienced and inexperienced; and practices and strategies were explored which facilitate effective supervision. Those provisions for and approaches to supervision which supervisors have found to be effective are presented and discussed as they apply at the institutional, departmental or individual level.     

Transforming supervisors? A critique of post-liberal approaches to research supervision

Preparation for research supervision has assumed greater importance in academic departments of universities with the increase in the number and diversity of both research candidates and supervisors and the financial incentives for on-time completions. Over the past decade a body of literature by both academics and academic developers has emerged and more recently post-liberal theories and frameworks (feminism, postmodernism and post-colonialism) have been used to problematise the field of postgraduate supervision. Central to the feminist and post-colonial critiques is the belief that supervisors are best equipped for their roles by a process of personal self-transformation which allows them to achieve an appropriate balance between emotional and rational elements in their supervisory practice. We wish to set critical and post-modern approaches in historical perspective. We seek to show that feminist and post-colonial approaches are heir to a form of critique, which was founded upon the assumption that certain institutions and practices of modern society are dehumanising because they fragment human beings’ essential unity. We argue that engaging supervisors in a process of self-transformation reinforces the idea that successful supervision is a function of the supervisor's recovery of a fully integrated and higher self.     

Exploring perceived support of postgraduate medical science research students

There is still much to learn about the support required by postgraduate research students, across academic disciplines, to facilitate successful completion of a research degree. The primary aim of this study was to explore postgraduate medical science research students’ perceptions of academic and mentoring support at different stages during their degree programme. A second aim was to explore the feasibility and acceptability of peer mentoring as a strategy to enhance student support in this population. A mixed method study design was used. Students first completed an online questionnaire, which was then supplemented with focus group discussion to explore emergent findings in greater depth. The main results indicated that the nature and quality of academic supervision support have a significant influence on research student training and development. ‘Functional’ and ‘relationship development’ concepts of supervisory styles were highlighted as important aspects to perceived support in this research population. The main facilitators to enhance academic support were effective communication, project planning and timely feedback. There was a high degree of acceptability for a peer mentoring programme as a complementary approach to enhance student support. Peer mentoring psychosocial functions such as friendship, counselling and career guidance were considered potentially beneficial to enhancing student support. Students also discussed peer coaching as central to their learning and research skill development. This work is a useful starting point to explore perceptions of research student support in the target population. Further work is required to develop strategies to enhance student support in academic practice.     

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.     

Academic Supervision: seeking metaphors and models for quality

This paper explores the idea that conceptualizing academic supervision (at Honours or graduate level) as a fiduciary relationship can assist supervisors in enhancing student learning through quality decision‐making. In this paper I reflect on my conceptions of supervision in the light of the growing scholarship on supervision. My conceptions of academic supervision affect my practices as a supervisor. I use my conceptions and experiences of the supervision process to draw conclusions about the ‘best practice’ of supervision. These conclusions about best practice are partial in the sense that they are justified by past experiences, mine and those of others. More is needed to assist supervisors to deliver good quality supervision within a complex relationship where future issues are hard to predict. As a solicitor and legal academic I have been exposed to the ‘professional–client’ relationship and to the literature on metaphors and models for such a relationship. The literature on academic supervision suggested to me that the professional–client relationship and the supervision relationship were similarly perceived. Metaphor is used as a device to understand complexity and to provide a model for decision‐making that, it is argued, will facilitate quality learning outcomes within the supervision relationship. In the fiduciary metaphor the focus is on a relationship which is essentially an ethical one of promoting the welfare of the student. The effectiveness and continuance of the relationship depends on trust. Differentials in knowledge and power are respected but not exploited. Those with greater knowledge and power have correspondingly greater obligations. The language is that of mutual responsibilities and obligations rather than rights. This is contrasted with paternalism, a widespread metaphor within the professions generally, which disempowers and marginalizes.     

Supervision of Doctoral Students in the Natural Sciences: expectations and experiences

Within the natural sciences and engineering, literature relating to postgraduate education, in particular the process of completing a doctorate, remains generally scarce. That which does exist emphasises the role of the supervisor in effecting successful completion and points to a wide range of activities performed by supervisors. There remains, however, little by way of accounts of the actual experiences of supervisors or students when engaged in the process of doctoral supervision. It is these experiences which form the basis of this paper which focuses upon doctoral students and their supervisors in the disciplines of physics, mathematics and engineering science. Data for the paper have been collected, as part of an ESRC funded project, by means of in‐depth interviews with students and supervisors in nine universities in England. In particular, we address students expectations of PhD supervision, the extent to which expectations have been met, and within the context of the ‘career’ of the PhD, the ways in which supervision changes as the doctoral process progresses. Important issues relating to the need for training for PhD supervisors and their capacity to meet the expectations of their students are raised, together with those which question the relationship between the PhD and the culture of academic work.     

‘They’re the bosses’: feedback in team supervision

Team supervision of PhDs is increasingly the norm in Australian and UK universities; while this model brings many improvements on the traditional one-on-one research supervision, it also introduces new complexities. In particular, many students find the diversity of opinions expressed in teams to be confusing. Such diversity in supervisor feedback is often experienced as unsettling, and the study indicates that students generally seek consensus from their supervisory team. The power dynamics existing in the relations between team members in this situation need to be carefully considered, and supervisors must be alert to the ways in which doctoral students can be effectively and productively inducted into the norms of academic debate and collaborative research projects. The paper explores the implications of diversity in feedback in relation to developing a pedagogy of supervision.     

Appropriating WhatsApp-mediated postgraduate supervision to negotiate “relational authenticity” in resource-constrained environments

Despite the surging prominence of literature that explores mobile instant messaging’s (MIM) capacity to leverage transformative pedagogical practices in higher education, studies that unravel the appropriation of MIM to leverage postgraduate supervision in authentic learning contexts are less frequent. Consequently, a gap persists on the nature of postgraduate supervisees’ existential and relational authenticity as they interface with MIM and supervisors during their consultation processes. This study drew on Heidegger’s existential authenticity, a netnography of WhatsApp-based supervisor–supervisee consultations and in-depth interviews to unravel how WhatsApp-mediated postgraduate supervision fosters the social construction of relational and existential authenticity in resource-constrained contexts. The findings suggest that authentic supervision was constructed through supervisor–supervisees’ negotiation of academic hierarchies, supervisees’ self-expression and self-disclosure, their management of moments of anxiety and conflict deflation in ambivalent supervision scenarios. The study recommends that supervisors need to manage the significant yet unrecognised “nervous moments” in technology-mediated supervision environments, where compression of hierarchy may be conflated with negation of the supervisor’s authority.     

Freire and dialogical pedagogy: a means for interrogating opportunities and challenges in Australian postgraduate supervision

Discussions between new postgraduate students and potential supervisors prior to the formalisation of supervisor–student partnerships serve several useful purposes. One purpose is to explore the expectations that each partner has of the other and of themselves and the anticipated nature of the partnership. This article employs Freire’s perspective on dialogical pedagogy as a framework to identify and interrogate opportunities and challenges in postgraduate supervision. Theorising and clarifying the postgraduate supervisory process in these terms at the outset of candidature and at strategic points along the way can save time and effort that might otherwise be devoted to misunderstandings and less than optimum progress. It also has implications for lifelong education for both supervisors and students that can be realised beyond the period of candidature and the substantive and methodological gains normally associated with successful completion of a thesis.     

Enabling connections in postgraduate supervision for an applied eLearning professional development programme

This article describes the practice of postgraduate supervision on a blended professional development programme for academics, and discusses how connectivism has been a useful lens to explore a complex form of instruction. By examining the processes by which supervisors and their students on a two-year part-time masters in Applied eLearning negotiated the blended approach adopted to supervision, it illustrates the conditions that enable connections to occur and flourish. The socio-technical context for supervision was supported using learning technologies (VLE, research wikis and ePortfolios), small group supervision (two to three supervisors and students) and traditional individual supervision. Qualitative data were obtained through surveys and focus groups, and analysed using a framework which drew on connectivist principles. Findings suggest that for increased connections between supervisors and their students, a sense of sanctuary, community and regulation within the supervision process is important; the role of technologies in unifying postgraduate supervision in professional development are discussed.     

Postgraduate supervision: E-mail as an alternative

Abstract

Supervisors at higher education institutions cannot ignore the possibilities created by technology, and for the sake of this article, e-mail, as an aid for supervision on postgraduate level. After completing the modules for the Magister Technologiae (M Tech): Education qualification, students are required to complete a dissertation of limited scope. Many of these students cannot visit their supervisors on a regular basis, because of the time and costs involved in travelling far distances. The only time when some academics meet the students is when they attend the workshops on proposal writing. In this article the authors argue that e-mail supported supervision should be considered as an alternative to traditional one-on-one supervision. The research on which this article is based followed a qualitative design. Data were collected by means of open-ended questionnaires which were sent by e-mail to the participants and their responses were e-mailed back to the authors. The findings indicate the satisfaction of the students with e-mail supervision which enabled them to complete their studies in the prescribed time. The use of e-mail in supervision was found to create opportunities for further study even on postgraduate level.     

Reciprocal mentorship: an effective support for online instructors

This article presents a reciprocal model of mentoring as an alternative approach to more traditional mentoring models. A mentor, experienced with online course delivery and pedagogy, worked with six online instructors over two academic terms within a reciprocal mentorship model. This model was designed to build a collaborative learning relationship which would benefit each partner. The mentoring was scheduled on a just‐in‐time basis in response to each online instructor’s needs. Study results show that the time commitments required to accomplish the goals of the mentoring project were challenging for participants; that post‐secondary institutions have a responsibility to provide multiple supports (including, for example, mentoring assistance) for faculty members teaching online; and that developing a structured mentoring program could facilitate a more effective reciprocal mentoring process, with benefits for both mentors and mentees.     

Supervision of supervisors: on developing supervision in postgraduate education

During the 1900s, the path to a PhD degree has seen many changes for both postgraduate students as well as their supervisors. The supervisor's duties have increased in scope and the demands made on PhD candidates have augmented. This paper deals with supervision as pedagogic method. Departing from a project aimed at studying ‘supervision on supervision’ through a programme including a special pedagogic model for learning, process‐oriented group supervision as a method of improving doctoral supervision is discussed. In the model used, the supervisors' relationships and the experiences form the basis for reflection process connected to, among others, communication theory and social‐psychological explanatory models. Pointing out the five requirements of trust, theories, tools, training and time, it is concluded that ‘supervision on supervision’ well may serve as a way of improving doctoral supervision.     

Enhancing postgraduate supervision through a process of conversational inquiry

This paper argues for, outlines and begins to evaluate a process of building a critical and reflective community of postgraduate supervisors who can develop their supervision practice through reflective conversations, with the sharing of best practice and reference to research-based evidence. In 2009, the initiative of the Postgraduate Supervisors' Conversations was set up through the collaboration of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Postgraduate) and the Teaching Development Unit at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. This initiative was designed to complement the compulsory workshops for postgraduate supervisors that are intended to provide foundation skills. We aimed to create a professional development opportunity that could meet institutional requirements as well as enhance supervisors' capacity to manage the ongoing interpersonal and academic complexity of the supervision process and its dynamic character. This paper outlines the rationale for the Postgraduate Supervisors' Conversations, describes its implementation and discusses the implications of an initial evaluative focus-group discussion with attendees.     

Developing evidence for action on the postgraduate experience: an effective local instrument to move beyond benchmarking

Summative and benchmarking surveys to measure the postgraduate student research experience are well reported in the literature. While useful, we argue that local instruments that provide formative resources with an academic development focus are also required. If higher education institutions are to move beyond the identification of issues and benchmarking practices, the scope of survey results and their reporting need to enable and foster appropriate changes in disciplinary practices. Robust, locally developed instruments can provide detailed, programme-specific information and foster timely changes in practice with direct benefits for postgraduate respondents. Unlike benchmarked surveys, local tools can adapt to explore and examine specific concerns of students, supervisors and academic developers. Coupling high-response rates and follow-on engagement with participant feedback, well-designed local instruments provide clear and irrefutable indicators to programme and university administrators of specific disciplinary strengths and weaknesses in postgraduate pathways. In this paper, we discuss the development of a research student survey specifically designed to support academic development purposes in strengthening and enhancing the postgraduate experience.     

Leading by example: the influence of ethical supervision on students’ prosocial behavior

Universities worldwide strive to nurture socially responsible graduates to create a better society. Since ethical behavior of role models can stimulate followers’ professional standards and ethical values, it is crucial to focus on an appropriate path through which ethical values can be conveyed and learned by individuals. The current study seeks to examine if this objective can be facilitated through the positive role played by academic supervisors at higher education level. Owing to the very close leader-follower relationship, this study empirically investigated if ethical supervisors could stimulate prosocial behavior among students under their supervision. Data was collected from 240 postgraduate university students and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings of this study revealed that students demonstrated greater anonymous, emotional, and compliant prosocial behavior when they perceived stronger ethical supervision. Study implications and limitations have been discussed.     

English for Specific Purposes and Academic Literacies: eclecticism in academic writing pedagogy

Academic Literacies and English for Specific Purposes perspectives on the teaching of academic writing tend to be positioned as dichotomous and ideologically incompatible. Nonetheless, recent studies have called for the integration of these two perspectives in the design of writing programmes in order to meet the needs of students in the increasingly diverse and shifting landscape of academia. The aim of the present paper is to reflect on how this theoretical integration could be put into practice. Drawing on the design of a research-based writing workshop for postgraduate anthropology students, we argue that rather than a ‘hybrid’ model of writing pedagogy, a theoretically grounded but eclectic approach is needed in order to respond to students’ personal, local, and disciplinary contexts.