The bumpy road to postgraduate supervision in South Africa: A collaborative autoethnography

Abstract

The pressure to increase the number of postgraduate qualifications in South Africa has intensified the need for quality supervision within universities. Supervisors often engage with their students based on their own prior experiences as postgraduate students. This has the potential of enabling and validating postgraduate students' learning and success or could constrain and subdue it. This study acknowledges the supervisor-student nexus in contributing to a new generation of academics as key agents in the development of a knowledge economy. Using an autoethnographic inquiry approach we reflect on our supervisory experiences at two universities of technology in South Africa, unpack power relations in the supervision process and critique the models and styles of supervision. We use reflective narratives to unpack the complexities of the student-supervisor journey that can be dark, rough, and lonely. The principles of participatory learning environments and the tenets laid down by the Freirean notion of a Humanising Pedagogy is adopted as a framework underpinning this paper. The findings show that postgraduate supervision should be viewed as a facilitative process that provides supportive and inclusive spaces for student participation in academic practice.