Postgraduate TEFL Students’ Perceptions towards Thesis Supervision Quality in Thailand: The Role of Expectations and Negotiation in Supervision Quality

Abstract

Despite the growing number of postgraduate students in Southeast Asian countries, specifically in Thailand, there is a shortage of studies on supervision quality in the Thai context of research supervision. This study aimed to obtain in-depth qualitative insights into postgraduate students’ perceptions of thesis supervision quality in Thailand by looking into the expectations and negotiations and their influence on supervision quality. Ten TEFL Master of Arts students who had completed their thesis between 2021 and 2022 were recruited using a purposive sampling strategy in two private universities in Thailand. The data were collected using email interviews followed by member-checking and then systematically analyzed. Students believed that all expectations should be established and negotiated clearly between the supervisors and them. Most of the students’ expectations from supervisors were about supervisors’ soft skills such as adaptability, communication, dependability from total dependency to total autonomy, listening, work ethic, and teamwork. Most participants deemed negotiation of the roles necessary and practical. The study has several theoretical and practical implications for aligning students’ expectations with the actual supervisory practices to improve the quality of thesis supervision.