Facilitating Researcher Independence Through Supervision as Dialogue

A doctoral researcher’s successful completion of a research project and production of a thesis, monograph or exegesis and publications is usually considered the pinnacle of success for both graduate and supervisor(s). In the most successful relationships, the main aim is fostering both interdependence and the doctoral scholar’s confident, enacted and continued independence. For the developing doctoral scholar, successful supervision relationships and processes help establish firm foundations for future research writing and intellectual engagement. Here we consider supervision interactions, including feedback as a developmental dialogue. We share the Hidden Curriculum practice of developing ideas, arguments and writing together and with others during and beyond the supervision relationship, termed ‘Fridaying’, indicating its creativity and equality in a liminal space. In exploring supervisor and doctoral scholar interactions as forms of dynamic developmental dialogues, we can demystify processes and dispel some of the ‘fuzziness’ surrounding the conceptualisation, development and practices of supervisor/researcher interdependence which respect difference and nurture confidence, autonomy and independence.