THE pHASES Of SupERVISION

1. The completion rate of research degrees in general, and of research degrees in the humanities and social sciences in particular, is not high. One of the reasons is not so much that candidates fail to complete, it is because they never get started. Even in the case of many of those who do complete much of the research time is spent in aimless reading and the remainder in frenzied activity (Ingleby, 2007). The first few months of thesis research are, thus, crucial if the remainder of the time is to be put to effective use. For this reason

students in the sciences are often given close initial direction (Parry, 2007).

It is also for this reason that across the disciplines some departments require research students to justify the proposed topic and methods at seminars prior to the start of the research. This ensures there is also input from experienced researchers other than the supervisors at the foundational stage of the work (Moses, 1985). Subsequently the supervisor’s task will be to guide and negotiate the transition of the student from dependence to greater degrees of independence. Etienne Wenger’s definition of negotiation is particularly apposite to this stage of the student–supervisor relationship:

The concept of negotiation often denotes reaching an agreement between people, as in ‘negotiating a price,’ but it is not limited to that usage. It is also used to sug-gest an accomplishment that requires sustained attention and readjustment, as in

‘negotiating a sharp curve’. I want to capture both aspects at once…I intend the term negotiation to convey a flavor of continuous interaction, of gradual achieve-ment, and of give-and-take.

(Wenger, 1998, p.54)

2. Negotiating greater independence between supervisor/s and student requires, therefore, different degrees of direction at different times and the attainment of different levels of mutual understanding between supervisor and student as the research progresses. This is the context in which the following discussion of three phases in supervision should be considered: though each phase is generally discernible, the boundary between them is necessarily indistinct and movement between each not necessarily linear. To see them as clearly structured and develop from one to another as a progressive step-like process is to consider supervision, quite unrealistically, as project management (Tennant & Roberts, 2007). Thus, on the basis that negotiating greater independence is an iterative, interactive process the initial phase generally involves the establishment by both student and supervisor/s of mutual expectations and agreed procedures. It also usually requires regular and frequent meetings between them so as to assist the student to start the research process as seamlessly as possible. (This normally translates into one meeting every two to four weeks.) The median phase is marked by the gradual withdrawal by supervisors of the scaffolding erected during the initial phase and by the concomitant sustaining by the student of a balance between support and challenge (Horn, 2005). This often involves the forging of new research identities by research students. A supervisor stated that he knew the transition was taking place when student researchers:

…begin to be the ones who retrieve relevant articles and present them to me…they know what they are looking for and they know what is relevant. Before that you

have to keep saying you should look at this piece, have a look at this, have a look at this, see if you find anything on that. There comes a time when they are coming to you and telling you this is really important.

(Kiley & Wisker, 2009, p.435)

3. In the sciences the transition often becomes apparent when the previous year’s trainee now helps new trainees (Wenger, 1998). Some students, however, develop neither direction nor momentum so the supervisor’s support and the additional labour involved will need to remain in place. But, even for those students who do develop the necessary confidence, there will, inevitably, be moments of self-doubt when confronting the apparent enormity of the task of writing a thesis. For this reason the pastoral element in the supervisor’s role often assumes a greater degree of importance during the median phase than in either of the others. There are also sound academic reasons why some supervisors might at this stage also look, for example, at samples of the data as they are generated. This need not imply lack of confidence in the student, for doing so not only helps supervisors keep abreast of the work but will also assist them to offer more informed advice during the data analysis stage (Carson, 2007).

4. The final phase is often intense and pressured: students face a looming deadline while supervisors generally confront the demands of a number of research students each wanting ‘their’ supervisor’s undivided assistance in order to enable them to meet that deadline. These demands can be particularly exhausting for supervisors coming as they so often do either during, or soon after, the university examination period. However, the unsettling impression some supervisors give at this stage of ‘withdrawing’ from the supervisory process is not only a consequence of these particular demands and pressures.

Unlike students they work on an endless production line of thesis writers; as one group finishes a new group begins.

5. The duration of each of the three phases of supervision will differ according to the unique requirements of each research undertaking. It is, nonetheless, self evident that the first phase should be as brief as possible relative to the others. However, its relative brevity is in inverse relation to its importance, for the subsequent smooth development of the thesis process depends upon the effectiveness of its foundational function. This can be seen, for example, in the number of student supervisor cases mediators at universities deal with during the course of an academic year. At some institutions the numbers are considerable. Many of these disputes could have been avoided had mutually agreed expectations and open lines of communication been established at the outset.