Managing your

SupervisorAssociate Professor Joan Wardrop

&

Dr Ann Schilo

Workshop – 27 June 2007

Courtesy of Fiona White Developing as a research supervisor, ww.itl.usyd.edu.au/synergy/pics/cartoon2001.gif

Program

4.00pm Welcome

4.05pm Introduction – getting the most from your

supervisory relationships

4.25pm Workshop exercise – scenarios

5.10pm Group Discussion

5.25pm Concluding remarks

Your Thesis Committee

YOU

SupervisorCo-

Supervisor

Associate Supervisor/s

Chairperson

Our Key Points:

The nature of the supervisory relationship in general.

Some strategies for keeping that relationship working well for you.

Getting started by working with your supervisor to develop a strong research question from your research topic.

What Postgraduate Students Say

What qualities do you want in an effective supervisor?

Someone with a genuine interest in the topic/in supervising.

Someone with outstanding research experience.

Someone with empathy for students and the demands placed

on them.

Someone who is approachable, easy to talk to.

Someone who has a good background in my research area. Someone who is comfortable to be with, easy to get

along with.

What Supervisors Say

What qualities do you look for in a postgraduate student?

Someone who is independent, self-motivated, and able to show initiative.

Someone is able to write in clear, legible English.

Someone who is open to advice, comments and criticism

from others.

Someone who is ready for regular meetings. Someone who is able to report honestly about research

progress.

Adapted from Leonie Elphinstone and Robert Schweitzer, How to get a Research Degree, A Survival Guide (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1998).

Varying Roles/Multiple Responsibilities

Master/Apprentice

Gatekeeper/Entrant

Teacher/Pupil

Expert/Novice

Guide/Explorer

Project Manager/Team Worker

Client/Client

Editor/Author

Senior Partner/Junior Professional

Colleague/Colleague

Friend/Friend

Director

Admission

Candidacy proposal preparation

Early mid stage—reading, experiments, concept mapping

Late mid stage—writing, professional practice

Late stage—writing up, submitting, examination, revision

Getting started—The First Months

Meet your committee.

Plan the structure of supervision sessions.

Chat with your main supervisor regarding mutual

expectations (short- term, long-term).

Work with your main supervisor on your candidacy proposal—plan/read/write.

Planning the Structure of Supervision Sessions

Frequency—how often will you meet during the Candidacy stage? Where? For how long?

Focus—how will the topic for each meeting be planned?

Records—how will the discussions/outcomes of each meeting be recorded?

Response to written work—will written work be required, how should it be sent to the supervisor, what will be the usual time for receiving feedback?

Scheduling—who is responsible for scheduling meetings, and how (email? Phone?)?

Getting Started—Substantive issues

Given my research topic, what is my Research Question?

What literature (theory, criticism, reports) should I start reading?

What research skills/experimental techniques should I develop?

Will ethics approval be needed?

What will be the timeline for the research project?

When should I start writing?

The Ideal Relationship between you and your Supervisor. . .

Is one in which you

Are committed to your project—even eager, enthusiastic.

Keep arranged meetings, not postponing them unnecessarily.

Are prompt in handing in work and attending meetings.

Are willing to take guidance and receive constructive criticism.

continued…

The Ideal Relationship between you and your Supervisor . . .

Continued . . .

Are committed to attending seminars and conferences, and presenting papers through these activities.

Understand your Supervisor’s other commitments.

Are frank and open in your discussions with your Supervisor.

Take responsibility for yourself, your work and your progress.

The Ideal Relationship between you and your Supervisor . . .

Is one in which your Supervisor

Is knowledgeable about, interested in your research topic.

Is sufficiently available in order to allow for meetings as needed. [1-1.5 hrs/week]

Reads your submitted work promptly.

Gives constructive critical feedback.

Is friendly, open and supportive.continued . . .

The Ideal Relationship between you and your Supervisor . . .

Continued . . .

Makes it easy during meetings for you both to exchange ideas.

Is able to offer support for the management of your project (that is, information management and time management).

Is ethical in all dealings with you.

Is supportive of your overall long-term career plans and makes opportunities available to you, including advice and support for attending conferences, meeting people, publishing your work and the like.

Workshop Exercise

Discuss the following scenarios in your small groups.

Consider:

What are the problems / issues raised by the particular situation?

What advice can you give to both the students and the supervisors?

NOTE: If you were unable to attend the workshop in person, consider these scenarios and discuss them with your supervisor at your next meeting.

Scenario 1

“I'm in the studio, “I'm in the field”

Through her painting and her exegesis, a DCA student, Jemima, is exploring her family's memories of several generations of a rural life which now has been lost to drought and bankruptcy. Similarly focussed on memories and identities and loss, Matthias is researching the cultural history of Timor Leste's struggle for independence since World War II for his PhD. Each time his supervisor persuades him to write a draft section of a chapter Matthias realises that he has so many unanswered questions that he has to go back to the archives or to the field to do more oral history interviews. His supervisor meets Jemima's supervisor for tea to discuss the issue because it has become clear that Jemima also is facing difficulties moving beyond the studio towards writing.

Scenario 2

“anything but the thesis”

This semester Sue is tutoring three hours a week in a second year class and four hours a week in a master's seminar: next semester it will be four and four (if, as she says, she is “lucky” - all that teaching experience). She's preparing a paper to present at an international conference in the break and has promised another paper to the Faculty seminar in two week's time. Not sure yet what that will be on (“just have a title so far”) and she's just taken on being an online graduate student editor for one of the big H-Net discussion lists. That shouldn't take more than an hour a day. She doesn't feel that she has enough research experience so she's over the moon that one of the research centres on campus has offered her a temporary contract. She knows she has a bit of a tendency to crash and burn but she also knows that her supervisor can usually be persuaded.

Scenario 3

“it will all fit very well”

Melissa is a successful photographer who is interrogating her art as a means of exploring portraiture. Her supervisor is pushing her to include the spaces within which people practice their everyday lives in her project. She does not wish to, not least because she thinks her supervisor's own work on domestic spaces might overwhelm her own. She is confused about where to draw the lines between her and her supervisor.

David came to Curtin to work with a particular supervisor who has researched and published extensively in his field of interest. David's research on rural livelihoods is one section of a much larger project on rural change in Western Australia. He's always thought of himself as a fairly independent thinker but he's finding that with this new supervisor he has to limit his thinking and work through the project according to the supervisor's framing of it. He can't work out if it is just a bad fit of supervisor and student or whether the supervisor really isn't able to give him appropriate intellectual space.

Scenario 4“How about next Friday at 11am?”

Rani has just discovered a crucial study that uses similar methodological analysis to her own project and dearly wants to discuss its finding with her supervisor, Professor Plato. They arrange to meet at 1pm on Wednesday. Unfortunately at 9am that day Rani receives an urgent email from Plato saying they have to cancel their meeting – a visiting International professor has arrived unexpectedly and Plato has to spend the day with her. They reschedule their meeting to Friday at 11am, this time at the Kirribilli. By 12pm Friday Rani has waited over an hour and realises that Plato has forgotten their meeting. She’s too embarrassed and polite to call attention to it and bother such an important professor, so lets the matter go. Next Monday afternoon she receives an email from Plato apologising, completely forgot their meeting. They try to reschedule for Tuesday? – no Rani has classes, Wednesday? No Plato has all day staff meeting. Thursday is Plato’s research day, Friday? Rani has a full day symposium at UWA to attend. The following Monday – no Plato has full meeting schedule, Tuesday? no that’s Rani’s teaching day. Wednesday - there’s a faculty forum. Thursday? no Plato has to fly out to National Conference, the following week? No Rani has three weeks field work off campus…... It looks like it could be 6 weeks before they can arrange to meet to discuss the article.

Scenario 5

“But are you sure I’m on the right track?”

Claudette has had an intensive session with her supervisor. She really respects his opinion and has taken copious notes on their meeting. On the way home she realises that she’s forgotten to ask a crucial question so when she gets in she dashes off an email enquiry to him. Claudette is a bit of an insomniac. By 2am she has thought a great deal about the topic they discussed, and as she can’t sleep, she sends her supervisor a detailed email and asks for his comments. The next afternoon she finds an email from her supervisor saying he’s caught up in meetings all day but will attend to her email as soon as possible. That night she has thought a bit more about the issues and so sends him another extensive email with further elaboration. The next morning she hasn’t received a reply so leaves a message on his voice mail to contact her. He doesn’t. That evening the supervisor is relaxing at home with a glass of wine when he receives a phone call from Claudette. She’s really concerned now that he hasn’t responded to her ideas and perhaps she’s on the wrong track with her research.

Scenario 6

“A scholarly piece of writing”.

Sebastian has worked extremely hard on his study of the architecture of golden age of theatre in Australia. He has some magnificent photographic documentation and detailed data collected from primary and secondary research on the topic. There’s a wealth of oral history that he’s transcribed and he’s spent months compiling all the information into chapters for his thesis. He last spoke to his supervisor about two months ago when he promised her that he’d send her a draft of chapter 3 and 4 when he’d finished them. He is struggling at the moment. It’s just that there are some real problems with the structure of chapter 3 and he’s not too sure if the section on oral history should be placed in chapter 4. He doesn’t want to contact his supervisor until it’s properly written. He spends the next three weeks rearranging paragraphs, editing, deleting, rewriting. It’s just not proving to be the scholarly piece of writing that he wishes to submit for examination.

Acknowledgements

• Some of the slides in this PowerPoint have been based on a presentation previously given by Associate Professor Barbara Milech. We thank her for the use of them.