SuperVisible Encounters with Great Graduate Supervision:
Dr. Doug Clark

Doug Clark

This image represents my philosophy of supervision, which involves inviting people into a supportive community. I focus on engaging graduate students in the practices and discourses of a community so that they learn how to participate as active members. A supervisor can enable participants within a community, but it also means building relationships with students so they feel safe working with you. Students need to trust that I understand their needs, and I won’t assume a path for them. It’s more than me teaching or helping them to complete a dissertation. I’m trying to move them forward into whatever community they want to join, and so my philosophy supports community at multiple levels.

As a supervisor, I prepare a very diverse group of students to engage in community practices that align with their future goals. For example, it is important to engage my students in publishing because many of them plan to pursue a career in academia. I try to involve them in my research, and I support them when they’re ready to begin writing a paper based on their research. Sometimes, our collaboration on writing projects can extend long after graduation. Related to this, when a student requests feedback, I provide it right away, even if they’re not my student. Providing timely feedback is important, and I believe it should be recognized as a key component of a supervisor’s or committee member’s role.

Looking Back and Lessons Learned

Reflecting on the students I supervised earlier in my career and how I could have done better, I think I always strove to involve them in my work. However, it took me a while to figure out how to help students transition from my projects to leading their own. As a doctoral student and a new professor, the model I experienced involved graduate students working on the supervisor’s large, overarching research program and carving out a piece of that. However, as a senior professor, I have become more accustomed to supporting diverse students who engage in a variety of research projects. Many of my current students are leading their own projects with me in a supportive role.

A supervisor needs to consider how to choose a committee that will be productive for the student, and realize they are inviting colleagues into a community of practice. I still don’t think I have it all figured out, but I’m learning more about how to constitute a good committee for a student. There have been times in my career when I selected someone whose CV indicated they had the expertise we needed, yet their personality wasn’t a good fit. They were good people, but they held very different views on supervision and how to support students. Supervisors need to select committee members who understand the community the student wants to align with and who can work collaboratively to support that student.

It is very important for supervisors to understand that everyone enters graduate school with a diverse background and set of life experiences. There is no one right way to set students up for success, and that’s okay. Given student complexities, past experiences, future goals, and situational factors, supervisors need to develop flexibility in their practice. For example, there is no single, fixed standard for what a dissertation “ought to be,” despite our tendency to claim otherwise. Across programs, committees, and digital repositories, a wide range of dissertations have been deemed acceptable for graduation. We therefore can’t insist there is only one absolute way a dissertation must look because, in fact, we have extensive evidence to the contrary. Instead, supervisors need to understand the student’s circumstances, what they want to achieve, and then how best to support them to meet a defensible standard. That is my fundamental commitment.

Another important commitment involves helping my students develop the skills they need to succeed in the community they want to join. I really love the alternative thesis idea where we embrace our role in preparing students to engage in communities of practice that extend beyond our academic community. Students have a range of communities they can choose to be part of, and our job as supervisors is to help them understand where they want to go and to help them to get there.

Actions for Effective Supervision

Each new supervisor likely needs to focus on developing different skills. However, there are a few suggestions that come to mind, such as aligning your practice to each student, listening carefully to the student’s goals, and establishing a learning plan that will benefit your students beyond graduation. Tailoring your supervision to each student means listening to the student, determining their goals, and making them aware of options, so they can assist in developing a plan. When I was a grad student, I was warned that finishing the PhD wasn’t the hardest or most important part of the program. It was the learning and experiences that would prepare me for my career beyond the doctoral program. Supervisors need to work with students to set them on a pathway that engages, connects, and invests in the experiences they need during the program to prepare them to follow the career path they want to pursue. Beginning supervisors need to think beyond the narrow scope of helping students finish their theses and graduating to the steps beyond convocation. The products that will be beneficial for a student heading into a senior K12 leadership role will likely be different from those required by someone aiming to become a tenure-track researcher. The student who plans on a leadership role will need support in building their network, their leadership career, and demonstrating their impact in the profession, which differs from preparing for a post-secondary teaching and research career.

While I say supervisors need to do what is right for each student, I have also had students become frustrated with me. One of my students finally graduated after being in the program for a long time, and they were unhappy about all the revisions I requested in the final year. As a supervisor, I balance my sense of what the student can do with what the student is achieving and what I view as an acceptable standard. While I don’t believe in a single standard, there are standards for what I am comfortable signing my name to as the supervisor. In exams, I have noticed that very experienced supervisors will recognize diverse work that meets their standard while some junior, less experienced supervisors might be more critical and get caught up in the drive for everything to be outstanding. There is a holistic view a supervisor develops over time and with experience about which student outcomes are appropriate and requisite in the research. In the end of the example above, there was an interesting tension between the student being mad at me for pushing them and then expressing gratitude after graduation. At the same time, during the exam, I was able to help the junior colleagues who were examiners understand why this student’s outcome met a defensible standard and was research that mattered.

In summary, I believe new supervisors need to ensure they are listening and having those conversations with students about their trajectory. Newer supervisors may not have as many images or examples in mind, but they can also collaborate with peers to open up those possibilities for their students. Once you accept that the goal is not to replicate yourself as a professor, you can focus on helping your students to succeed and pursue the career that they want and will enjoy.

Knowledge for Effective Supervision

New supervisors need to develop some simple practices, like responding quickly to emails and requests for feedback, developing a trusting relationship with students that comes down to being understanding and flexible, and making sure that you are there for your students. When you give feedback, you need to be supportive even when something requires further iteration or refinement. It is very easy for academics to be critical and point out errors. It takes more skill and care to help students make progress. Feedback from the supervisor that focuses on critique without acknowledging their progress and advice on how they can improve can threaten a student’s self-identity.

I think new supervisors must develop skills to help students with writing. When you are new in your career, you are also learning how to write, so it can be harder. I teach a lot about writing practices using strategies that work for me. I expect my students to listen to their writing using text-to-speech read-aloud before sending it to me because I have found it helps with editing. I teach students to use outlines. Many students are used to shorter writing formats, like a five-paragraph essay, that don’t require as much structural scaffolding. It is a challenge to organize something longer that will fit together, like a chapter or a thesis.

You also need to set boundaries around the students’ writing tasks. This involves specifying manageable subsections that they will work on first, submitting to me for feedback, rather than expecting or encouraging them to complete full chapters or analyses before submitting to me for feedback. That way, feedback on the earlier sections can be incorporated as they write subsequent sections, rather than completing full documents that subsequently require full revision. That said, I encourage students to be respectful of my time and to only submit work that they have put some thought into and have addressed my feedback. Many students are willing to take responsibility for their writing when provided with balanced, specific feedback. By telling them where they are making progress, showing them what is working, and where the writing falters, even down to something small like comma use or the importance of reading aloud to catch typos, can help students understand how to strengthen their writing. As I have supervised more students, I have become clearer about what strategies will work for most students. I have seen a bunch of different students’ work processes, and I can say, ‘This is a work process that is going to work for you’ and students tend to believe me, so I guess part of it is just getting old!

Innovation and Reflection

In reflecting on my supervision practice and ongoing improvement, I aim to create a community around each student that aligns with the community they want to join. In Education, we attract diverse students who have different goals and interesting questions that often stretch beyond my area of research. I continually reflect on how I can support each student well. I position myself as a learner alongside my students. Thinking about how to tailor my supervision to help diverse students progress and be successful is an area I continue to work on. Supervision is about nurturing people. You need to balance growth-oriented feedback with support of student well-being, all while maintaining academic standards. You have to show the students that you care about them. It is just like teaching or being a parent; as a supervisor, you are helping to nurture a person. I listen carefully, I pay attention, I try to set up conditions that support my students, I give them feedback to guide their next steps, and I praise their accomplishments. I enjoy that I am a learner, rather than viewing the need to learn as a weakness.

Learn More about:

Dr. Doug Clark, Professor, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary [profile]

Recipient, 2022 Distinguished Graduate Supervision Award, Werklund School of Education