Doctoral writing advisors navigating the supervision terrain

Abstract

Research indicates that in disciplines such as social sciences, humanities and to a large extent in qualitative work across disciplines, writing plays a central role in doctoral education. The close association of writing with knowledge construction and identity building is acknowledged in the literature and in practice. Therefore, to facilitate ‘disciplinary becoming’ and develop competence in writing, doctoral writing advisors are being invited to become co-supervisors in our institution. Doctoral scholars who write in English as an Additional Language or their supervisors have recently been able to request doctoral writing advisors to be part of the supervision team. Though working with doctoral students was not a new experience for the two authors, being part of the supervision team was a different kind of engagement. The two professional practice stories in this paper reflect on our engagement in doctoral writing and the co-supervision space.

Keywords:

• Doctoral writing
• English as an additional language
• multilingual writers
• co-supervision
• supervision

Acknowledgements

The reviewers have provided us with very insightful comments to improve our article. We gratefully acknowledge their thoroughness and generous feedback. We would like to thank the doctoral students and their supervisors who have given us permission to use some of their data. Thanks also to our critical friend, Dr. Monica Behrend from the University of South Australia for feedback on an earlier draft.