A Research On The Category And Limitation Of The Graduate Advisors' Advising Responsibilities

Although the present academia pays close attention to the responsibilities of the supervisors,the researches have chiefly stayed at the level of experiential perception or pure speculation.Therefore,this study focuses on the supervising process of the supervisors,trying to clarify systematically the scope and specific limits of the supervising responsibilities that the supervisors should perform from both the theoretical and practical levels to identify the positions of each stakeholder involved in postgraduate education in the process of fulfilling their responsibilities.From the perspectives of the role theory,the theory of postgraduate socialization,the theory of the limit of the responsibility and the new institutionalism in the sociology,the specific issues include in this study: Firstly,what are the provisions of the institutional texts for the scopes of the advising responsibilities of the supervisors? Secondly,what are the current situations of the relevant groups' cognition of the supervisors' fulfillment of the advising responsibilities and the supervisors' fulfillment of various advising responsibilities? What are the problems and reasons? Thirdly,what are the rationality and corresponding limits of the responsibilities that the supervisors perform? Fourthly,what are the basis and limits for investigating the negative responsibilities of the supervisors? Fifthly,what are the strategies to ensure that the supervisors effectively perform the advising responsibilities?In order to solve the above problems,this study firstly uses the historical analysis method to sort out the evolutionary track of the types and characteristics of the relationships between the supervisors and postgraduates in Germany,Britain and the United States,as well as the characteristics of the relationships between teachers and students in ancient China.Compare them with the current relationships between the supervisors and postgraduates in China.Outline the ins and outs and possible future development trends of the relationships between the supervisors and postgraduates in China.Secondly,the study refines the conceptual framework of the supervisors' advising responsibilities using text analysis method to extract the subject words of the supervisors' responsibility norms from 34 texts.Thirdly,based on the established framework of the responsibility categories,the study uses a hybrid research method combining quantitative and qualitative to explore the cognition of the relevant groups on the advising responsibilities of the supervisors,the status quo,problems and causes of performing the responsibilities.Fourthly,the study demonstrates one by one the rationality of the supervisors' fulfillment of various advising responsibilities and the limits of performing the responsibilities and accountability.Finally,the study proposes the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions on effectively fulfilling the advising responsibilities of the supervisors.The results show that firstly,the relevant groups have a high degree of consensus on the supervisors' responsibilities of performing the academic guidance,while they hold different views on whether the supervisors should fulfill the non-academic advising responsibilities and the corresponding limits.Secondly,the supervisor group presents three kinds of cognitions for the advising responsibilities due to different orientations,namely:(1)the supervisors merely need to perform the responsibility of the academic guidance.(2)The supervisors need to fulfill various responsibilities including the academic guidance.(3)The supervisors need to collaborate with the other people to perform the partial responsibilities of the ideological and moral education,the life and psychological support,as well as the occupational and economic support based on performing the main responsibility of the academic guidance.Thirdly,there are some differences in the limits of fulfilling the positive responsibilities and taking on the negative responsibilities among the supervisor groups.The reasons of the supervisors perform the primary responsibility of the academic guidance include that the supervisors are very important observation and interactive objects for the socialization of the knowledge and skills and the academic professional socialization of the doctoral students.It is susceptible for the graduate students to the influence of the peer group and mass media's bad thoughts.The continuity of the postgraduates' political and moral socialization is the result of the interaction between the subjective and objective factors,which mainly depends on their own characteristics.Therefore,the supervisors,the postgraduates and the ideological and political education department perform the important responsibilities of guiding the ideological and moral conduct.According to the theory of the social psychological development,the psychological development of the graduate students is in the stage of getting the intimacy and avoiding the loneliness.They face the tasks of the socialization of the codes of conduct,the socialization of the life goals and the socialization of the personality.At the same time,the mental health education work have the characteristic of the professionalism and arduousness,which determines that the supervisors cooperate with the postgraduates and the ideological and political education department as well as the psychological counseling service department to fulfill the responsibilities of the life care and the psychological support.The supervisors are an important observation and interactive objects for the academic socialization of the graduate students and the socialization of the role of laborers.Therefore,the supervisors assist the graduate students and the professional guidance service department as well as the student financial assistance service department to perform the responsibilities of the professional and economic support.Under the premise that the supervisor has not effectively performed the guiding responsibility,the supervisor would be investigated the limited responsibilities,according to the specific situations,causes,motivations,consequences,subjective and objective reasons,as well as the ability to take on the responsibilities.The survey results also show that during the process of the supervisors' fulfilling the advising responsibilities,there are some problems in the supervisor group that need to be improved to varying degrees,such as:(1)the supervisors have the ordinary performance in fulfilling the responsibilities of formulating the training plans.A small number of supervisors have the insufficient time and energy,inappropriate degrees,as well as the unsatisfactory attitudes and abilities to supervise.A few supervisors focus on the using of the graduate students,neglect to cultivate them and manage them in the simple and inflexible ways.A few supervisors pay insufficient attention to the experimental safety education of the postgraduates.They do not respect or even encroach on the scientific research results of the postgraduates.They show some words and deeds that do not respect the personalities of the students.(2)Some supervisors have not fulfilled the responsibilities of the ideological guiding or have little effect.A few supervisors have not fulfilled the responsibilities of the moral guiding and even have a negative impact on the thoughts of the graduate students.(3)A few supervisors do not care about the postgraduates' life or fail to grasp the sense of proportion of the life care.A few supervisors help solve the postgraduates' life difficulties,guide the employment concept and provide the economic support in the unsatisfactory ways.Some supervisors lack the awareness of preventing the psychological problems of the postgraduates.(4)The humanities and social science supervisors have the low willingness to perform their responsibilities of providing the training fees for the postgraduates and feel stressful while those in science and engineering fields find it hard to sustain the financial support.To ensure that the supervisors fulfill their responsibilities more effectively,the study suggests that firstly,the national legislature should accelerate the legislation on the supervisors and postgraduate.Secondly,the media should create a social atmosphere of trusting advisors to enhance their professional dignity.Thirdly,the universities should improve the system to ensure the equivalent responsibilities and rights of the supervisors.Fourthly,the supervisors pay attention to moral self-discipline and enhance their sense of the responsibilities.Fifthly,the graduate students internalize self-responsibility and clarify the channels for rights protection.Sixthly,the functional departments and the departments that provide the service work together to share the responsibilities of cultivating the graduate students.Seventhly,the peer groups should help each other and exert the positive influence.