Online supervision in a professional doctorate in education: Cultivating relational trust within learning alliances

ABSTRACT

In this case study research, we examine online supervision and engagements in a blended education doctorate (EdD) programme through a lens of relational trust. Interviews with supervisors and EdD graduates enabled us to examine practices and strategies used to cultivate relationships and learning alliances that supported doctoral candidates in conducting research and dissertation writing. We explored opportunities and challenges in fostering effective supervisory relationships online. Five enabling factors for cultivating effective online supervisory relationships address programme design, supervisors’ roles and responsibilities, and doctoral students’ experiences. Establishing relational trust and learning alliances in early and ongoing engagements in programme through to culminating milestones was vital for effective student-supervisor relationships.

KEYWORDS:

• Online supervisory relationships
• professional educational doctorates
• relational trust
• learning alliances
• case study research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michele Jacobsen

Michele Jacobsen, PhD, is a Professor of Learning Sciences in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. Michele studies complex learners, learning systems and learning technologies in education using action, case study and design-based research. Her current research focuses on online faculty development for quality graduate supervision, peer mentorship for graduate students, professional learning frameworks for post-doctorate scholars, and research-based learning in graduate school. Twitter @dmichelej

Sharon Friesen

Sharon Friesen, PhD, is a professor in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, and the President of the Galileo Educational Network. Her research includes the ways in which K-12 educational structures, leadership, curriculum, and learning need to be reinvented for a knowledge/learning society; and involves: (i) innovative pedagogies, (ii) learning environments that promote innovative pedagogies requiring sustained work with powerful ideas, (iii) educational reform and policy, and (iv) the pervasiveness of networked digital technologies that open up new ways of knowing, leading, teaching, working and living in the world. Twitter @sfriesen.

Sandra Becker

Sandra Becker, PhD, recently completed her doctoral degree in the Werklund School of Education after a lengthy career in teaching. Her dissertation was on teacher learning in makerspace environments. As a post-doctoral scholar on a research team, she has investigated how students learn about geometric transformations in game-based and block-based coding environments. Sandra continues to research and write, exploring how learning evolves in various contexts, both in-person and online. Twitter: @sandralynnbeck