SuperVisible Encounters with Great Graduate Supervision:
Dr. Shelly Russell-Mayhew

Shelly Russell-Mayhew

This original artwork, created for my Body Image Lab website by a student, explores body image and weight bias, illustrating that we all bring different sizes, shapes and strengths to the work that we do. My lab is informed by social justice as a process, goal, and engagement structure where we can attend to all voices and perspectives together. This image resonates because one of the underlying values that guides my supervisory practice is social justice; in other words, the lab is for everyBODY.

My model of supervision is about creating a community, not a competition. Our community is focused on mentorship, where people feel like they’re standing beside each other or even standing stronger because of each other. I arrange for my postdoctoral scholars to contribute to the supervision of doctoral students, and the doctoral students to contribute to the supervision of master’s students, which creates collaborative teams who work together to grow students’ competence and confidence. There’s something familial about this supervision community, and my support for students extends beyond their graduation.

Looking Back and Lessons Learned

Looking back, I put a lot of unnecessary pressure on myself to supervise in a particular way. If I could go back, the biggest piece of advice I would give myself is to create a community, create an environment, and establish a place where community and collaboration can thrive, with supervision that is best suited for each of the students.

I would also invite myself to grow and learn with my students. I started small, but I think the realization that I didn’t have to do supervision entirely on my own was pivotal. I realized I wasn’t by myself. I wasn’t the leader who needed to have everything sorted out; there was so much expertise in the people who were part of my lab that I could also be part of this learning community. I didn’t need to have all the answers, and not every student needs the same things. If someone in my lab wants to conduct complex quantitative analysis, that’s not my area of strength. It might be another faculty member or a postdoctoral researcher with that expertise that helps support the student while I focus on the content.

Realizing that I can be a learner too, has made me a better supervisor. Even if I could figure out a perfect way to supervise – as if there is one – but pretend that there was, it might not work for the next student. Each student has different needs, and the way to build their network of support depends on their individual needs.

Actions for Effective Supervision

Three things that a new supervisor can do to set themselves up for effective supervision, and I’m looking at the more granular, actionable items, are (1) take care of their own well-being, (2) build relationships, and (3) be student-centred.

A new supervisor should set themselves up for success by knowing how to ensure their own well-being. Talk to other people who appear to have the types of relationships and experiences with their students that you wish to have with yours. Ask lots of questions, find out what worked and what didn’t, generate many different ideas, and then, see what fits best for you.

Supervision is about building relationships. I believe it’s incumbent upon supervisors to adapt their supervisory style to meet the needs of the student. A supervisor is a mentor, sometimes an advisor, a role model, a strategist, a critical friend, a learner; a supervisor becomes all these things, probably with all students at various points in their journey.

I build trust at the beginning of my relationship with graduate students by setting clear expectations. There are checklists and formal processes that I do in my lab at the beginning of every academic year. I also advise potential students to speak with my current and former students before they work with me. Students will tell other students the real deal. I can say all the right things, but someone who has been there can talk about the pros and cons of working with me. I think that openness helps to build a sense of trust, because it’s not just me telling you what it’s going to be like; I’m connecting you to the community to have a private conversation about what it’s like to join this community.

I meet with students at the beginning of our relationship to understand how they prefer to work. Most students know how they work best. Some students know that if I don’t give them a deadline, they won’t complete the work, while others say, “Stay out of my way, I plan on getting this done.” I ask them how they best work, and I always tell them my limitations.

My work with my students is my favourite part of my job. I tell students that if they can let me know when they think they have something they want me to review, I can block time in my calendar and get it back to them quickly. I sometimes bump other priorities to review student work, which I probably shouldn’t do! If a student sends me something I’m not expecting, it will probably be a couple of weeks before I can review it, even though I’m tempted to do so sooner. I think building trust is about understanding each other’s strengths and limitations and finding a way to work together within those.

Knowledge for Effective Supervision

I believe new supervisors should be reflexive, responsive, and flexible to establish themselves as effective mentors.

Supervisors need to be flexible and to learn how to live with uncertainty or ambiguity. They need to have multiple ways of mentoring because students come in all shapes and sizes, and it’s important to work to each student’s strengths. I’m an effective mentor when I’m helping my students meet their career development goals. I will work very differently with a student who wants to become an academic than I would with a student who wants to work in private practice as a therapist. I like to keep all pathways open for my students; however, if someone is clear that they want to be an academic, then we will focus more on publications and presentations throughout their academic journey. I work with my students to build their CVs in ways that make them competitive in the academy if that is their goal.
Knowing my students makes effective mentorship easier. The connections I have with students will vary depending on the student, and some relationships and supervisory experiences will feel effortless because they’re a good fit. In contrast, others might feel a bit more like heavy lifting, and that’s okay.

New supervisors need to watch, listen, and observe students to know how to respond as a mentor. Understanding how often the student might need to meet, determining the kind of feedback that will help them thrive, and learning the other kinds of feedback they don’t find helpful, is responsive supervision. But I think supervision is also reflexive. The supervisor must have enough self-awareness to be flexible and respond effectively for that student.

When I first started, I was so focused on academic success that I didn’t really allow space for students to be humans. I didn’t consider enough that students have whole lives outside of academia that are very complex, sometimes tragic, and occasionally difficult. My awareness quickly changed as I became more experienced. To me, there’s no balance; family and health come first. Period, that’s it. Student well-being takes precedence over any academic standard or expectation. Life comes first.

I tell my students to organize their academics around their life; don’t organize your life around your academics. I’m not sure when that changed for me, but I think my own life experiences and having children who became young adults, helped me better understand the complexities that people were managing outside of my supervisory relationship with them. I have some regrets about not having an embodied knowingness of prioritizing life at the beginning of my supervisory career.

Innovation and Reflection

I use a nested model of supervision. I really focus on collaboration and community, not competition. I don’t know if that’s innovative or not, but it certainly works well for me and my students. Many graduate students have been competitive their entire academic career, and working collaboratively is a new, but usually a welcomed, experience. I provide opportunities for learning how to collaborate in a transdisciplinary environment, which I think serves students well. Regardless of where they ultimately work, most graduates typically work across organizations and disciplines.

Another strategy that I think has been quite effective is scaffolded dissemination, where, for example, a student who has never presented at a conference is supported in creating their first poster. Then, the next year, they might co-present a project with a PhD student so that they have support in disseminating. Similar for publications; perhaps a postdoctoral student is leading the publication, but the master’s student is writing some sections for review and feedback. This scaffolded approach doesn’t throw someone in the deep end. I found this scaffolded approach to be effective because graduate students support each other while building each other’s CVs and utilizing everyone’s strengths on the team through mentorship.

My priorities as a supervisor have changed over time; I am continually learning. I had less compassion for life circumstances early in my career; as a supervisor, I thought that academic success was the most important outcome. Now, I think the success of my trainees as human beings is much more satisfying. To have my students make a mark in the world and in communities they have joined, that for me is the real meaning. I now have a more holistic view of what success as a supervisor entails. If the people who have been part of the community that I try to create have competently and compassionately given back to the world and make a difference in someone’s everyday life, then to me that’s the marker of success.

If I could go back and tell myself when I was juggling a young family and navigating my career as a beginning academic, I would say, your children are only that age once. Taking an extra year before promotion is okay if it allows you to spend more quality time with your family. The same applies to graduate students; take the extra year to complete your program so that your health is intact when you graduate. The more people hear that message, the better.

Learn More about:

Dr. Michelle (Shelly) Russell-Mayhew, Professor, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary [profile]

Recipient, 2018 University of Calgary Teaching and Learning Award for Graduate Research Supervision

Recipient, 2014 Distinguished Graduate Supervision Award, Werklund School of Education