2026/07/04 by Cally Guerin, Meagan Tyler, Katherine Firth +1 · 1 voice
Health Professions · Social Sciences · #Doctoral Education Challenges and Solutions #Evaluation of Teaching Practices #Higher Education Governance and Development
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/14703297.2026.2687864
openalex publication_date 2026/07/04 · openalex created_date 2026/07/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/12
Extensive research into doctoral education repeatedly demonstrates that the relationship between supervisors and candidates is key to successful outcomes. Simultaneously, successful doctoral candidates need to demonstrate significant independence. Given widespread interest in relational supervision pedagogy, we consider the possible tension around relationality in supervision where it might foster dependence rather than independence. How can such dependence or over-reliance on a supervisor be mitigated, particularly when supervision relationships risk disruption in an environment marked by a mobile academic workforce and institutional instability? We reflect on this troubling potential tension between independence and dependence and argue for the importance of doctoral education being embedded within an extended network of research relationships, drawing on the affordances of team supervision and various models of peer writing groups. ‘Relational supervision pedagogy’ can thus be understood as a pedagogy that deliberately activates relations beyond supervisors themselves to embrace broader research communities and networks.