Supervisory Beliefs And Practices Of A Foreign Language Phd Supervisor: A Case Study

Doctoral education is the highest level of degree education,the success of which is closely bound up with Phd supervision.Among the limited empirical research in this realm,most of them applied grand narratives to explore in a top-down manner;those focusing on Phd supervisors mainly relied on supervisors' personal interpretation.This study adopts an interpretive qualitative research methodology to explore a foreign language Phd supervisor's beliefs and practices in a bottom-up way.With interviews,longitudinal observation and text materials as the main data source;with text analysis and content analysis in analyzing the data,this study aims to present the lived experience of a Phd supervisor's supervisory practices,to illustrate the conflicts and contradictions in specific contexts,to portray the de facto state in supervising Phd students and finally to understand and interpret the specific phenomenon and experience.The research findings include: life belief lies in the kernel of a Phd supervisor's belief system,which exerts direct influence on his or her supervision;supervisory belief is what a Phd supervisor thinks,knows and believes,and it reflects his or her own understanding of supervisory conceptions and practices with distinctive personal colors,including multiple beliefs in three dimensions,namely student-supervisor relationship,supervisory activities and supervisory contents.Of various manifestations of supervisory belief,a Phdsupervisor's understanding of his or her roles and responsibilities is of primary status and can exert paramount influences upon other supervisory beliefs.Supervisory practice refers to a Phd supervisor's activities to fulfill his or her supervision objectives and obligations,which consists of academic training,students' management and emotional support.Academic training of the doctoral students were found to be the major supervisory activity,emphasizing that the supervisor elaborate and demonstrate his or her own research experience to the students;and that the supervisor create authenticacademic tasks to assist “students' learning by doing”.Another significant aspect is supervisor's emotional support or the student-supervisor relationship.It is indicated by the research that encouraging the students to be independent does not necessarily mean they are totally isolated in the research context.A trusting and close relationship between the two sides is of great necessity in academic guidance.Total exclusion of emotional support in supervision is incongruent with the supervisory principles.It is also found in the research study that contextual factors are the most significant influencing factors on supervision,which include supervisees' varied performances,the complexity and clarity of academic tasks,the matching degree between the expectations of two sides.Therefore,a Phd supervisor's supervisory practice is an ongoing process full of adaptations and adjustments to specific contextual factors.This study further indicates that a Phd supervisor's supervisory belief is not always static;instead,it evolves with the dynamic interplay between practice and context.The incongruities between beliefs and practices are found to generate conflicts and contradictions in a supervisor's mind,which to some extent,promotes changes in the supervision.Reflections are active,continuous and in-depth thinking on the supervisory beliefs and practices.Reflections on major and transitional events motivate the supervisor in reconstructing the given experience and initiating innovative practices.Based on the findings above,the research study proposes a theoretical framework of Phd supervisors' belief and practice,demonstrating with clarity the dynamic interplay among supervisory belief,supervisory practice and context,and reflection as mediating force in the process,which exerts implications on Phd supervisors' supervision and possible future research in this field.