Contextual Factors Shaping the Student-Supervisor Relationship

Postgraduate and doctoral research may be conceived as a social process requiring continuous interaction and negotiation between the student and the supervisor with the aim of developing scholarly disposition in the student. However, the dynamics of student-supervisor relationship go beyond the two actors and are also shaped by certain contextual factors arising from the disciplinary, institutional, cultural, and temporal context. Disciplinary context influences the relationship in terms of task structure and via funding availability. Institutional context has an impact in terms of rules framed and practices followed. Cultural context influences in terms of expectations regarding initiative, feedback, and independent thinking. Finally, temporal context signifies the change in student-supervisor relationship depending upon the research stage and the maturity of student/supervisor. This chapter also offers some recommendations and potential research designs to engage with these contextual factors.