Research on Doctoral Supervision: What We Have Learnt in the Last 10 Years

Abstract

In this chapter, we offer a review of the research on doctoral supervision conducted in the last 10 years (2005–2016). It includes 68 studies from a diversity of countries and disciplines that demonstrate the increasing growth that supervision has experienced as a research topic. The review focuses on: 1) study characteristics; 2) study purposes and the associated findings; and 3) the relationship between study methods and purposes. The results indicate that studies of supervision have focused on three themes: (1) perceptions; (2) pedagogy and the development of supervisors; and (3) conceptual models. Altogether, these categories sketch the path that authors have taken to study supervision during the last decade. On the basis of these results, some guidelines are discussed to encourage further study of new research directions.