Investigating Supervisory Feedback Practices and their Impact on International Research Student's Thesis Development: A Case Study

Abstract

There is inadequate research examining international doctoral students’ experiences of feedback from their supervisors and its impact on their thesis development. There is indeed a dearth of local literature on research investigating supervisors’ concepts of research supervision as evident in their supervisory practices and communication methods, and the research students’ expectations of research supervision, as well as their reactions to the supervision approach. The literature has emphasized the need for a more process oriented supervisory role that facilitates collaborative knowledge creation be employed (Johnson et al., 2001; Greenberg and Baron, 2003; Lee, 2007; Lee et al., 2008) to transform the relationship between supervisees and supervisors from one that is dependent to independence to graduate competent researchers successfully. At the same time it is important to note that the naturally unequal roles between supervisors-supervisees require continual negotiations and interactions throughout the supervision process to attain collaboration in thesis development. This paper will report on the preliminary case study investigating the nature and patterns of supervisory practices and methods of communication employed by a supervisor supervising an international research student. Research findings from this preliminary investigation is only part of a larger study and will guide further in depth investigation of supervisory feedback practices towards framing an overall pedagogical approach to supervising international students with an integration of effective supervisory styles and intercultural communication methods, essentially providing a toolkit for developing critical literacy in EFL thesis writing.