Announcing the Final Examination of Colton Tapoler for the degree of Doctor of Education
Date of defense: 01/30/2017
Time and room: 2:00pm in ED 306
Dissertation Title: Doctoral Supervision: An Analysis of Doctoral Candidates’ and Graduates’ Perception of Supervisory Practices
The purpose of this study was to collect and examine the reported supervisory practices experienced by professional doctoral candidates in the last year of their program, and recent program graduates, within the last three years, from across multiple disciplines. Doctoral supervisors, specifically in the United States, are not usually provided a set of practices or concrete training prior to advising doctoral candidates (Walker, 2008, p. 35). To address this problem, and the limited amount of research available on doctoral supervision in professional doctoral programs in the United States, it was critical to analyze the experienced supervision of professional doctoral candidates and its perceived effectiveness.
Current candidates and recent graduates were asked to participate in interviews based on the supervision they received. Ultimately, three current candidates and 15 recent graduates were interviewed for this study. These interviews were transcribed verbatim and then analyzed using grounded theory (Corbin & Strauss, 1990). The interviews were carefully analyzed for emerging trends that went on to represent individual supervisory practices, or concepts. After several additional readings these concepts were grouped together based on similarity into categories. Finally, these concepts and categories were analyzed for connections to candidate success, which developed into the findings of this study.
Ultimately, candidates and recent graduates discussed 19 supervisory practices. These 19 supervisory practices, or concepts, were: frequency of communication, quality of communication, mode of communication, accessibility, feedback, the use of articles and research, the use of a timeline for candidates, utilization of the supervisor’s existing expertise, offering workshops, use of the supervisor’s network, building a personal connection, showing enthusiasm, candor, trust, encouragement, autonomy, guidance, providing advice academically, and developing a collegial relationship. The findings showed that each concept was discussed as having varying levels of impact on candidates successfully completing their programs. Doctoral supervisors and doctoral programs should consider the implementation of these supervisory practices and the training that helps supervisors develop the supervision they provide to candidates.
Committee in charge:
Dr. Rosemarye Taylor
Dr. Thomas Vitale
Dr. Walter Doherty
Dr. Nancy Marshall
Approved by Dr. Rosemarye Taylor, Committee Chair on 01/10/2017
The public is welcome to attend.
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