Is there a disagreement? differing perspectives of a beginning student and novice supervisor

Abstract

In February 2002 when John commenced his PhD, as the recipient of an APA and against a background of successful achievement in three discipline areas (engineering, arts and architecture), the expectation of his supervisor, Susan, was high. This should be the ‘dream’ candidate—organised, professional and able to show regular evidence of progressive outcomes. Difference of opinion first arose at the sharing of ‘Expectations of Supervision’ session. Susan ranked Q. 8 The supervisor should check regularly that the student is working consistently and on task as ‘strongly agree.’ whereas John ranked The student should work independently and not have to account for how and where time is spent as ‘strongly agree’. Susan felt, as a novice Supervisor, that she had a role in ensuring John’s success through requiring regular meetings at which progress was discussed and work in progress reviewed. John believed, as a successful mature student, he could ably determine a route though the three years of study, without the Supervisor’s input, and indeed that his profound dyslexia meant that he certainly would not study in a pattern comprehensible to the Supervisor as predictive of producing outcomes at regular intervals to suit supervision meeting timetables, or that could be described as ‘consistent’. In the paper and presentation, John and Susan, drawing on the audio-tape of their initial discussion about this topic, describe how they discussed this tension, and what proposals they put in place to establish a framework for conflict resolution, and support John’s candidature. Other differences revealed in completing the ‘Expectations of Supervision’ pro-forma are discussed in relation to learning approaches.