Module 1, Session 2: Variables and dynamics in the supervision process

[Phemelo Hellemann]

#5312

I believe that personality plays a major role in supervision. This is important because one needs to know how to interact with their student based on their personalities. This links well to the type of communication style one chooses. Some people are more receptive to the push-hard type of communication, which can come across as harsh to a student that requires a more gentle approach. Having been on the receiving end of a hard supervisor, I know that a gentler approach would have made our relationship less turbulent. The supervisor had great topic/field knowledge but gave over-critical feedback that was hard to respond to. Our personalities were too different, and they did not know when to push and when to support me. Hence for me, I believe that a supervisor must always be aware of these dynamics. Once one is aware of the personality dynamics between themselves and their student, then it becomes much easier to pay attention to other factors such as gender, age, race and field knowledge.

I also believe that supervisors must also be aware of their positionality in the student and supervisor relationship. This means being aware of how their race, gender, status and class influence the way they treat their students because often these challenges are layered with years of internalised behaviour. In sum, the more the supervisor is aware of these variables, the more they will become reflexive supervisors that can acknowledge their own biases and make sure those don’t interfere with the academic progress of their student. This awareness can also make the relationship more co-relational rather than authoritarian.

[Washika Okonda Michael]

#5319

There is no doubt all the variables have a bearing on supervision of postgraduate students in Kenya. Much of it has to do with attitude and past experiences. For instance, for a long time most PhD students are of age forty and above. They also take long to complete their studies. Therefore, having a supervisor with this mentality may view a doctoral student in their thirties as not being ‘ripe’ for PhD and may take long to complete their studies.

[Washika Okonda Michael]

#5320

Knowledge, topic/field of study and personality all narrow to content mastery and expertise. A supervisor with an excellent personality and with a relevant area of specialisation has the knowledge and confidence on the process and content of supervision. This will in turn build confidence in the supervisee. Where the students have an opportunity to choose their supervisor many will opt for him/her. On the other hand a student with a strong personality will find it easy to approach the supervisor quite often

[Samu]

#5327

All the variables have impact on supervision. I will talk to what affected me when I was still studying.
Gender and age- In our African context, females have more family responsibilities than males. When supervising female students who is also a parent and maybe a wife, one need to be considerate of the time these students need to attend to family needs such as preparing meals, taking children to and from school, assisting with school work, attending school events(the list is endless). there is need to understand the multi-tasking the adult females are expected to do and give time allowance for such.
socio-economic status- if a student comes from a well resoursed background, they tend to learn and progress better than those from under-priviledged backgrounds. For example students from humble backgrounds have very limited computer skills, language becomes problematic…the schools they attended did not promote that language flency, lack of exposure affects the way one reasons and does their work. Some students even struggle to own a laptop they can use for their studies. When supervising, it becomes important to understand the background of your student so as to give needed assistant. I remember how my master’s supervisoe took me through some simple computer skills. I like how she did it without making me feel humiliated. Because of the way she was considerate of my background and my familiy responsibilities, we developed a good working relationship that pushed me to make progress so that i do not disappoint her by not meeting the deadlines…that were set with my responsibilities and deficiencies in mind.
Religion/culture- these contribute a lot in shaping the person being supervised. Knowing and respecting the student’s culture and religion is crucial for developing trust and a sound working relationship. It also helps the supervisor to understand the way a student works and progresses. For example, if a supervisor understand that in an African culture the wife does all the work in the home while the men do very little, the supervisor will not compare their male and female students’ progress. Some religions like mine has a full day set aside for worship, no school work or functions can be attended on this day. It is important for the supervisor to take cognisance of such religious commitments because culture and religion shape the scholars they are grooming.Respecting these makes the scholar realise that cultures need to be respected. As they are introduced to research culture, they tend to also respect it. Encouraging scholars to compromise their culture and religion to make progress with their research may teach them its okay to break or bend cultures…do not get shocked when they break the research culture…plagiarism and some ethical issues.

[Fiona Hagenbeek]

#5338

Generally, each of these factors will influence the supervision process. However, which combinations of factors are relevant, and to which degrees will differ between supervisor-supervisee relationships. In general, in the Dutch system, SES played a minor role for many years with the student bursary system and the fact that a Ph.D. is a paid position, making it possible for children of less privileged families to pursue higher education. To my knowledge, our department consists of individuals from a wide SES background, some have families with long traditions of obtaining higher education, but many are also first-generation university-goers. Within my own field/department, I haven’t noticed differences with regard to gender, ‘race’, status, nationality, religion/culture, or age, however, I do believe that in the Netherlands the majority of the Ph.D. students are of Dutch nationality and within psychology, the majority of students will be female. The Dutch system also ensures that there are no mismatches between supervisor-supervisee in topic/field, within the psychology Bachelor and the first internship in the master our department organizes, students can choose among several broad topics and then pick their top 3 research projects/supervisors, thus ensuring a good fit. Regarding Ph.D. students, these are hired on specific projects, often through external funding, so the topic is set in advance. The biggest influence I’ve noticed is language, communication style, and personality. With English being the most common language in science, differences in English education quickly become apparent; supervising students who struggle with their English comprehension is as frustrating to the supervisor as to the student: it’s the first step to good communication. Communication styles and related personality are likely the biggest contributors to a poor or good working relationship. While there are certainly examples where people with vastly different styles/personalities work well together, I believe a matching personality will ensure a more pleasurable experience in general.

[Kwak Seohee]

#5360

As to my own experiences as a PhD candidate in the Netherlands, nationality and cultural aspects seem to have played a role in the communication between myself and supervisors. Grown up in Korea, I have been taught that a good student is supposed to listen to what a teacher/professor says rather than to raise questions or to argue in class. In my view, students from many Asian countries show similar tendency. They may look passive or indifferent from supervisors with different cultural backgrounds.
As to my own experience as a BA students supervisor in the Netherlands, students (not only Dutch but also other nationalities) do not hesitate to raise questions during and outside class. In dealing with academic inquiries, supervisors seem to be expected to respond to their concerns and questions in a timely and substantive manner.

[Stephen Nguthi]

#5362

Age played a significant role during my training at MSc and PhD level. During MSc, my supervisors were relatively almost the same age and no much dynamism with regard to pace of getting feedback, choice of supervision meeting venues and times, turnaround time for feedback, the mode of communication etc. When it came to PhD I realized that age is such a huge factor. my relatively young supervisor wanted things done there and then for instance, he gives you a task, you got to do it and give results very fast. He also preferred correspondences through email, while the other one much elderly preferred meeting face to face all the time with a hardcopy document which he would literally mark word for word page after page. His turnaround time for feedback was also relatively longer.

Another factor that may come to play is where (the institution, country) the supervisor trained and even where they work (a university, a research institution). There has been instances where some scholars regard themselves better trained arguing their colleges were better than where their counterparts went to school. Supervisors who are not attached to universities, for instance those who work at research institutions also experience challenges supervising a student alongside their university counterparts mostly because of work schedules and background.

[George Erick Omondi]

#5363

Gender plays a role in supervision process. The societal construction of what it means to be male and female makes it easier for a male candidate to undertake postgraduate studies than females. At postgraduate level, the society in Africa, for instance Kenya, expects the lady to be married and incase the female is married, she has several duties to undertake caring for the husband and children. A case in point is when a postgraduate student gave birth, her research work had to stop for six months to allow her recover and bring up the baby. Postnatal complications also came in. This resulted in the delay of her academic progress for close to one year.

Regarding socioeconomic class, postgraduate students from financially stable backgrounds tend to complete their studies in time. On the other hand, those without sufficient finances are usually challenged because they cannot sit examinations without completing semester fees, neither can they purchase some of the materials required for their research work.

[Isabella Lutzili Asamba]

#5383

A big challenge for postgraduate students hinges on accessing authoritative and authentic academic literature in order for the student to gain specialist knowledge in their area of research. The costs of these academic documents are often a challenge coupled with this is the funding required to undertake primary indepth research. Communication between supervisor and student is another critical factor coming into play; students expect constant and immediate communication. On the other hand supervisors expect the student to have addressed comments raised during previous discussion. Oftentimes there will be gaps leading to progress delay and frustrations for both parties. Most postgraduate students in my country are already working within organizations or running private enterprises thus constraining the time they can spend on studies.
I have noted that in my country gender and age play a role in supervision. When one is a woman and a younger woman at that, older male students at times feel that one’s knowledge level is still lower than their expectations. It therefore, means that one has to work harder at proofing early, their knowledge position on the topic/field in order to be accepted.

[Hellen wafula Kamwele]

#5387

Religion /culture came into play when a masters student i was supervising was male and his culture is such that women are there to be seen only. The student was not taking instructions, leading to very little progress until he was given a male supervisor.

Age also plays a role for the students older than 50 years.They take time to grasp issues and others want to be assisted in writing their dissertations.

Timely feedback is key but is hardly the case both from supervisors and students which leads to the student taking too long to finish his work in the postulated period.

[Austine Amukayia Mulama]

#5395

All the below factors contribute to the supervision environment
Gender
‘Race’
Socioeconomic class
Communication style
Status
Knowledge
Topic/Field
Personality
Nationality
Religion/Culture
Age
Language
However, communication, knowledge/research field, personality plays a major role.

[Chantel Elston]

#5397

I think all of these variables can intersect in an endless number of ways, and that is why the supervision process is so fluid and ever-changing. For example, my experience of being in the natural sciences, fieldwork was a big factor that allowed me to build a good relationship with my supervisor and break down that ‘power’ dynamic, through spending lots of time together working in different environments and often living in the same accommodation for short periods of time. I have tried to emulate that feeling of ease with my now first masters student that I am supervising, but have been unsuccessful at it and I still feel the power dynamic at play, even though I have tried to breach the barrier. I think this is largely due cultural differences.

[Emily Bomet]

#5411

Supervision of politicians and senior members of the society is sometimes a challenge. Some don’t cooperate with the supervisor since they know that they earn better salary and are of higher status than the supervisor. It is important to have an induction at the beginning of supervision so that it can reduce such challenges.

In terms of topic/field, sometimes the supervisor is asked to supervise an area which the supervisor is not interested in or does not have knowledge in that field.

Communication style also affects supervision. The supervisee may request to see the supervisor but sometimes the supervisor doesn’t respond to the student’s messages. This affects the length of supervision. The process may take very long and the student may give up consulting the supervisor. Some even drop out of their studies.

[Lilian Diana Awuor Wanzare]

#5416

In my experience during my Phd in Germany, race, communication style, culture, Language and Age were major dynamics that came into play during the supervision process. There were differences in what is seen as typical in terms of how supervisor-supervisee relate in Kenya and in Germany.

Here in Kenya, as a supervisor I see communication style, Gender, Socioeconomic class
Knowledge and age coming into play.

[Philippa Irvine]

#5445

I have come to believe that the supervision process is very much a process of induction of the student into a particular academic discipline. While a lot of the fundamental components of this induction into Geography are a constant (spatial thinking, critical thinking, reading, writing), it is the variation in the context of the student who trains within this discipline. These intersections of gender, race, class, nationality and so on are part of this context. These contextual differences can be harnessed to bring new perspectives to the discipline and should, therefore, be celebrated and harnessed. The differences can be a issue within the supervision process, however. Supervision is not an objective, impersonal relationship. I am a big believer that supervisors and students at a Masters and PhD level need to be a good fit with one another in order for the relationship to be as fruitful as possible. This good fit would ideally mean some commonality in context, but this is not going to be possible within the diversity of individuals within the university community. Therefore, I think the best tactic in creating a fruitful supervision relationship is to create an environment where communication, respect and understanding are possible.

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