Supervisors supporting supervisors in the context of higher education

ABSTRACT

This paper reports on a study investigating the implementation of peer support groups (PSGs) for the purpose of supervisor development in higher education. The context for the study is a national doctoral programme in Norway, where PSGs were introduced as an important part of measures aimed at the development of PhD supervisors. The aim of the PSGs was to establish forums for discussions of specific challenges that the supervisors faced in their supervision. Furthermore, our aim was to contribute to supervision development via meaning-making, problem-structuring and problem-solving. The supervisors discuss challenges from their own supervision practices according to a specific five-phase model. Using a combination of thematic analysis and interaction analysis, we found that the discussions enabled by the PSGs resulted in altered comprehensions of the challenging situations the supervisors faced, as well as thoroughly considered strategies with which to progress.

KEYWORDS:

• Higher education
• doctoral supervision
• professional development
• interactional analysis
• peer support groups

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 While Steen-Utheim and Wittek applied these categories to feedback dialogues between teachers and students, we have adjusted the approach for the purpose of operationalising and identifying the potentialities for professional learning in the PSGs.

2 Carrie’s PSG group included seven people (one male and six females) in addition to Carrie and the moderator, and Angela’s group included six people (all female) in addition to Angela and the moderator. In the transcripts, we name the participants as (P)1–P(6/7). See Table 3.

3 In Norway, it is typically up to the PhD candidate to initiate supervisory meetings.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Norges Forskningsråd [grant number 275572].