Abstract
This paper presents an autoethnographic, narrative analysis through self-reflection of my own personal transition from doctoral student to doctoral supervisor. An evaluation of the importance of the PhD in South Africa, the role of doctoral supervisors, and characteristics of good supervisors was undertaken; against which my personal experience was assessed. This paper was important in challenging whether institutions of higher learning in the country are adequately preparing young academics to become independent, effective doctoral supervisors. Some of my recommendations include the need for universities to come up with PhD supervision development programmes, as well as to consider alternative supervision models so as to facilitate mentorship of new doctoral supervisors, to ensure the attainment of PhD standards. The limitations of this paper are that, the researcher and subject, are one and the same person, hence there may be concerns of objectivity.
Highlights
When one attains their own PhD qualification, they are overcome with a sense of relief
An examiner who will provide the student with access to vital materials on pitfalls to avoid during the doctoral process, for example such as mock viva voce, access to anonymized examiners’ reports for other students, as well as encourage the student to attend and present their work in progress at conferences where it can be critiqued by independent audiences
Similar to the scholarly work of Daramola (2021), this paper adopted autoethnography as a form of qualitative research. This methodological approach was deemed appropriate in this instance since it presents a retrospective account of my journey as a novice doctoral supervisor at a South African university, based on my real life lived experiences
Summary
When one attains their own PhD qualification, they are overcome with a sense of relief. Will I make a good PhD supervisor? This paper seeks to examine doctoral supervision for novices through the transition from PhD student to PhD supervisor for young academics, by using autoethnographic analysis. Using existing scholarly literature, supported with the narration of the author’s personal experience - we will discuss the transitional journey from one side of the fence, to the other, by first considering the role of a PhD in the South African context, the role of the supervisor, characteristics of a good PhD supervisor, and sharing my own personal experience as a novice supervisor. The paper ends with recommendations to improve the experience of a novice doctoral supervisor within the tertiary education space
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