More than a confessional: postmodern groupwork to support postgraduate supervisors' professional development

Abstract

Academics are experiencing pressures related to accountability and appraisal, excellence, effectiveness and efficiency. These pressures can intensify when the role of postgraduate supervisor is added to an already crowded professional and personal life. Although support and discussion groups for supervisors have been used in professional development programmes, merely ‘confessing’ concerns and inadequacies has limited value. Supervisors need processes that enable them to explore and analyse the complexity of the postgraduate experience. The postmodern, narrative approach to groupwork outlined in this paper—the story-dialogue approach—invites supervisors to examine the metaphors and myths that surround the postgraduate research experience. Story-dialogue groupwork opens to supervisors the possibility for change in their professional practice through greater depth of understanding of the postgraduate experience and the supervisory relationship in that context. It moves the focus of professional development programmes from training to reflective practice.