Spheres of Influence: Ventures and Visions in Educational Development*3-6 July, 2002 AbstractResearch supervisor educational development: 'Turning the light on a private space'Catherine Manathunga, The University of Queensland, Australia Demands from governments, postgraduate research students, graduates and university managements have heightened the emphasis on the educational development of research supervisors throughout the world. This has thrown the spot light on what has been regarded as a 'private space' (Stehlik, 2001); the most private form of teaching in higher education. Many academics are sceptical about their need for educational development in how to supervise postgraduate research students more effectively and resent intrusions by academic educational developers and other non-Faculty based staff. On the other hand, educational developers and other non-Faculty staff represent their endeavours as a means of providing support and lightening the workload of severely over-stretched academic staff in Faculties. This paper explores these competing perceptions of postgraduate research supervision educational development and examines the variety of approaches adopted at Australian universities. It compares these approaches with the work done in this area by UK Research Councils and universities. Much of the research supervision educational development in Australia and the United Kingdom is located within what Smith (2001) calls an administrative framework that emphasises mutual roles and responsibilities in supervision. Meanwhile, since the mid 1990s, a literature on the pedagogy of research supervision has challenged liberal discourses on postgraduate supervision that suggest that supervision is based on rationality, logic and the intellect, where both research supervisor and student are constructed as white, Anglo-Celtic, male, middle class, heterosexual, and able bodied. This paper explores how these fundamental insights into the role of emotion, irrationality and the body could be incorporated into research supervision educational development programs in ways that academic staff might find valuable. As a result, this paper seeks to chart the research supervision educational development ventures that currently exist and to explore a vision of future supervision educational development that incorporate more effectively the significant discoveries produced by educational research on postgraduate research supervision. Key words: Objectives, outcomes and activities: The paper will also present a vision for future research supervision educational development programs that incorporate significant discoveries emerging from educational research on postgraduate research supervision. In particular, this vision should allow the findings of recent explorations of research supervision that challenge liberal discourses to be productively engaged with by academic staff in educational development programs. Attending this seminar presentation will provide participants with the opportunity to examine the characteristics of current Australian and UK research supervisor educational development programs and to think about how future programs could be designed to make the findings of educational research on research supervision accessible to academic staff. Participants will be invited to discuss and engage with this vision of future research supervision educational development programs and to share their ideas and strategies in this area. In particular, participants from Continental European, African, Asian and North and South American countries will be invited to describe their approaches to research supervision educational development. Catherine Manathunga, B.Arts (Hons) UQ, PhD (History) UQ, GradCertEd (Higher Ed) QUT is an historian currently working as an Academic Consultant in Postgraduate Supervision and Teaching in the Teaching and Educational Development Institute (TEDI) and The Graduate School at The University of Queensland. Prior to becoming an academic educational developer, Catherine taught and researched in the areas of history, politics, education, and gender studies at Queensland University of Technology and the University of Queensland. Her current research interests include postgraduate research supervision and internationalisation of the curriculum. Contact: Catherine Manathunga, email: c.manathunga@tedi.uq.edu.au |