What do Doctoral Advisers Learn from Doctoral Advising?

• In Event: Exploring Processes Involved in Doctoral Education

Abstract

Despite an increased emphasis on formal training and monitoring of doctoral advisers, there is a striking silence about what advisers learn from advising and how this learning ought be theorized. This paper begins to address this gap by drawing on a thematic analysis of interviews with cross-disciplinary sample of experienced advisers. The analysis shows that doctoral advising impacts on advisers’ learning and knowledge but not necessarily in expected domains. These include how advisers engage with the social/political context of the university; understand themselves and their students; the sorts of pedagogical relationships they establish with students, and their personal subjectivities and identities. Based on the analysis, a theory of doctoral advising as an ontological process of ‘becoming a adviser’ is proposed.

Author

• Christine M. Halse, Deakin University