Module 1, Session 2: Supervision with a humanizing pedagogy

[Alta]

#1663

Very thought-provoking. Perhaps two things that stood out for me:
1) There are parts of facilitating students’access to powerful knowledge that is hard. Understanding all the possible ways in which students may be excluded, and helping them navigate those barriers – that’s pretty hard, and there are no clear-cut answers. But clarifying to them what the PURPOSE of their postgrad studies are, giving them a “map” to the new world they have to navigate? Probably not so hard.

2) Humanizing pedagogy, decoloniality and navigating a new world all starts with recognizing that a student needs to develop their academic identity, which is an academic manifestation of their true and authentic selves (natural scientist here, please forgive the clumsy articulation). If students know, up front, that their (different) way of knowing and being not only has a place in their academic endevour, but is ESSENTIAL to becoming thought leaders for a fit-for-purpose future, I think we can already get a step closer to true transformation.

[Thando]

#1668

This document helped me think more concretely about my sometimes flawed expectations of what postgraduate students should know by the time they finish undergrad. In my initial list of requirements on the first exercise, I took for granted questions of literacy, which is a general assumption we make in our field. And it also occurred to me that we expect students to have a vast reservoir of vocabulary and of literature well beyond what is present within the syllabus. The latter especially assumes that students have the resources to do so…and while students at Rhodes have a good library, it is unlikely that they will have had anyone explicitly TELL them that they need to read more widely than what is prescribed. I imagine that those who have jobs also don’t have the time to read more widely.

As for my other expectations, such as a sense of what a logical argument and citational practices looks like , I feel like these are more fluid expectations, that can be integrated into supervision. In other words, they can be taught.

As someone who inhabits plural epistemologies, it comes as no surprise that u/g and p/g studies require shifts in BAMEs ways of seeing/being, but I also see the merit in POINTING IT OUT to people who fit neatly into the academy without having to make that adjustment.

[Charles O]

#1679

An eye opener. I am getting to know my biases and assumptions and the source of frustrations to the supervisors as well as PG students. That many factors inter-play for a PG to succeed is no easy road. As supervisors we need to holistically understand our PG students.

[Lucas]

#1691

Postgraduate training is a very important activity for knowledge creation and dissemination. It requires dedication from the institution, supervisors and the “supervisees”. The institutional environment must be conducive to have a successful postgraduate community. Unfortunately today, quite a number of our universities have not provided sufficient incentives and environment for the appropriate conduct of research by Faculty and postgraduate students alike. Labs are not adequate where such facilities are needed. Quite invariably, tools/materials for research are insufficient even where there are labs. Where there is goodwill, the procurement process is at times so slow as to affect the progress of postgraduate research. Whenever such delays occur, apathy on the part of supervisors sets in to the detriment of student progress.

The other issue worth mentioning is that our supervisors also need continuous training on skills for supervision. I have in the past heard from students making negative remarks about some of their supervisors’ capacity to supervise. One area that I strongly feel should be targeted is “Methods for Data Analysis”. It is a nightmare for quite a number of supervisors and this problem ends up frustrating students. The supervisors naturally cannot disclose their limitations to their students. Subsequently, the supervisor-student relationship deteriorates and this is not healthy.

[Kefa S]

#1706

As I continue to read reflections from the other colleagues in the forum, I now get convinced that the School of Graduate Studies needs to be given more authority! I am aware that the School of Graduate Studies does quite a bit of what needs to be done, but often, this is administrative – to co-ordinate, among others, examination of thesis, approval of supervisors and examiners, to mention a few of the responsibilities! From the ongoing discussions, though, how I wish the School of Graduate Studies would do more on the training and induction of supervisors and postgraduate students, respectively! Issues of writing, the ‘life-skills of postgraduate studies’, management of supervision, etc, need a formal set-up within postgraduate education that will ensure the development of postgraduate human resource, the students and research (in general).

[Abosede]

#1708

The tasks of the supervisor particularly caught my attention in this presentation. The presentation made me reflect on the role of passion and dedication in the supervisory process and how these play out in postgraduate education and scholarship, holding national and institutional factors constant. The passion and dedication to indeed act as a ‘guide, teacher, advisor, facilitator, critic, freedom giver, friend, manager, director and examiner’ will undoubtedly go a long way in supervising with a ‘humanising pedagogy’.

[Alando]

#1734

I think one of the things that a supervisor should strive to achieve is to trust that postgraduate candidates, especially those in their research phase, are capable people with an idea of what they want to achieve. However, given the system here that socialises students to imagine that they do not know while the supervisor has some sort of monopoly of knowledge, students tend to shy off from articulating themselves clearly. This fear of articulating their thoughts can render the students to simply do and follow what the supervisors suggest rather than their own research ideas. The challenge to supervisors, I think in this case, should be to guide from behind – giving the candidates the chance to develop their ideas while at the same time keeping an eye to ensure that they maintain their focus and achieve quality in doing so.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by Alando.

[Alando]

#1735

I think one of the things that a supervisor should strive to achieve is to trust that postgraduate candidates, especially those in their research phase, are capable people with an idea of what they want to achieve. However, given the system here that socialises students to imagine that they do not know while the supervisor has some sort of monopoly of knowledge, students tend to shy off from articulating themselves clearly. This fear of articulating their thoughts can render the students to simply do and follow what the supervisors suggest rather than their own research ideas. The challenge to supervisors, I think in this case, should be to guide from behind – giving the candidates the chance to develop their ideas while at the same time keeping an eye to ensure that they do not go astray in doing so.

[George]

#1826

This is great eye opener. As supervisors, we need to consider new world of supervision that could contribute to further social inclusion. Postgraduate education can be used for economic and social mobilty of the underpriviledged sections, but alot of times if we are challenged to do something to address an issue in our own social context, we grumble about dilution of academic standards.
We need to begin to think of social inclusion as a process affliated societal structures and terms. It could be used for non-stigmatizing potential.
In addition to gender, language, funding, geography, the other contributing factors are
* Time taken by students to graduate
* Workload and social commitments of both supervisors and students
* Lack or inadequate competence exhibited by either or both supervisor and student
* Lethargic tendencies. Some students are less enthusiastic about the programme, particularly where a student is already enjoying certain priviliges and the degree may not bring value addition.

[Jane]

#1829

The presentation is very enlightening and shows how critical the role of a supervisor is in the transition of a student, how it contributes to social inclusion and social justice. A supervisor plays a key role in bringing out the students’ identity in terms of contributing towards the community of knowledge. It is therefore important for the supervisor to guide the students in conceptualizing areas that they have identified for study. some of the topical issues identified by the students are sometimes influenced by their experiences, socialization and interests which may be linked by their social contexts. Hence, supervision is an essential element that contributes to social justice and helps in ‘humanizing’ the learners. It should also be used to close various gaps that contribute to social exclusion such as gender, religion, race, age and culture.

[Mashudu]

#1830

Supervision encompasses diverse facets that do not only require discernment but creativity. Our particular context as a university entails catering mainly for the previously disadvantaged; and one constantly finds themselves confronted by a mixed bag of issues, which range from gender, socioeconomic status, culture and culture. So in essence every postgraduate student must be supervised with an awareness of their particular context. One needs to understand that students might know as much as one would like them to know and that as a supervisor your role serves to facilitate the process inclusion. This would mean empowering students, identifying an attitude and resourcefulness that produces quality work. Supervision is a two way street and requires one to work hard, both as a supervisee and supervisor I learnt that its not just about doing postgraduate work for the sake of just doing so, it demands diligence and emotional intelligence.

[Nwabisa]

#1948

The PowerPoint presentation on Supervision with a humanising pedagogy prompted a real introspection to me as a supervisor. It became so clear that the process of ushering a student through the postgraduate world should be handled with much delicacy and mindfulness taking into account the individuality of your students. It required a lot of patience and creativity.
On the question of reasons for Social exclusion apart from gender, language, funding, and previous education experience there are other issues such as
-Laziness (people who just don’t want anything to challenge their abilities)
-Fear of the unknown (some people are intimidated when they see the work of people who are well established in the world of research and think that this is not their world. They give up without even trying).
-Ignorance (some people do not look for information in the relevant places, they rely on hearsay and lose out on great opportunities).

Supervision with a humanizing pedagogy to me means that supervisors should guide students to create their own knowledge instead of telling them how to think. Feedback should be tailor-made for individual students as they represent different societies. Adopting humanising pedagogy in supervision will enable supervisors to create a space for students where their voices may be heard, building confidence in the field of research allow them to bring their being in a constructive and formalised manner.

[Amos]

#1990

In as much as we need students at PG level, the candidates choice of topic/Field is very crucial. This is linked to the students previous knowledge in the subject area. In fact most of the students who struggle are those who have shifted from their undergraduate training disciplines into totally new academic territories or disciplines.

As far as supervision is concerned, supervisors need to first view themselves as academic mentors and realise that some expectations from the PG students may NOT be possible/feasible. There is need to understand the personality of the student and if possible conduct a SWOT analysis of the students. This will make supervision become more objective rather than being subjective.

[Candice]

#2015

This certainly made me think of my own practices as we dont often really ‘know’ what it is to be socially inclusive or exclusive. It takes quite a lot of experience and/or reflection and the ability to take feedback on your supervision, to recognise these. My sense is that we often dont get enough feedback from our postgraduate students and/or the feedback is not taken seriously enough as the structures for feeding back are quite unique. So, do all supervisors really know how there supervision is being experienced by students? I often find that some students sitting on the cusp of acceptance to honours often make the better senior postgraduate students. They havent thrived in the traditional teaching and learning environment that undergraduate courses sometimes require and are more open and flexible to new ways of learning and knowing.

[Sine]

#2021

Social inclusion at the postgraduate level calls for thinking about access, decolonizing and success as integrated concepts, which I still need to think about how do they apply in my context. The term powerful knowledge has made me think about Henri Lefebvre’s production of space thesis, if I can use it to analyze academic spaces. It stresses not only about superficial level, but also practice and lived experiences of participants, where culture intervenes.

[Author]

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