Multi-Formed Power and Coordinated Responses in Academic Supervision

Supervisory dialogues are a local, power-infused activity that discursively engages students to articulate their views and to reconcile these views with supervisors’ advice. While existing research has well informed us of different ways to solicit and respond to supervisory advice, it remains unclear how different forms of power are exercised to negotiate advice and other complex issues of research writing. Through observations, interviews and discourse analysis, this study examines how supervisors and students coordinate their responses to exercise multi-formed power in supervision meetings. Findings reveal gatekeeping, interactional, responsive and explorative power as crucial resources both parties utilize to legitimate authority, shape epistemic asymmetries and construct shared understandings in the supervision. These resources assist supervisors to reinforce the expected knowledge-making and balance their regulation with students’ autonomy and their self-direction. This process regulates students’ thinking, positioning and (re)orientations to supervisory advice.