How Do Indonesian Student-Teachers Experience Wellbeing during Research Supervision? A Qualitative Interview Study

Abstract

Research supervision is a collaborative and interactive process that plays a significant role in shaping the successful outcome of a student's learning in higher education. Crucial, but often neglected, we believe that the role of students’ wellbeing during dialogic and sociocultural interaction such as communication styles and expectations during thesis supervision raises issues concerning best practice in students' success. This qualitative interview study investigated thirteen student-teachers’ wellbeing at one private and one public English school in an additional language university context. Drawing on Seligman's positive psychology and Longo’s wellbeing thematic coding analysis, we reported how professional dialogue from dialogic and sociocultural perspectives in the supervisory interaction shape student-teachers’ five wellbeing dimensions: positive emotion, positive relationship, engagement, meaning and accomplishment. Micro elements of wellbeing were identified and analysed inductively. The findings illuminated how institutional and environmental cultures intricately shape students' wellbeing, highlighting that wellbeing is not only constructed through supervisory advice but also dynamically challenged and nurtured through ongoing dialogic interactions among students. The policy and practical implications arising from this research were discussed.