Early Career Researcher Supervision Strategies: Promoting Graduate Student Mentorship

• In Event: Better Mentors: A Workshop for Early Career Motivation Scholars

Abstract

Since my first tenure-track position in 2009, I have supervised graduate students across Master’s (10; MA, MEd) and PhD programs (11) in educational, school, and social psychology, with graduates securing both tenure-track positions (EduHK, McGill, Alberta, CUNY) and rewarding non-academic positions (Behavioural Insights, Government of Canada). I have co-authored nearly 40 publications and over 130 conference papers with supervised students, provided supervision on over 40 MA and PhD committees since 2010, and serve as the Director of the McGill Learning Sciences Graduate Program through which I support and advocate for graduate students at the departmental level.

Concerning my graduate supervision strategies, I have benefited consistently from adopting a direct and hands-on approach, working intensively with students in weekly lab and individual meetings to develop ideas, review analyses, develop writing, and strategize dissemination. In addition to setting clear expectations and challenging students to improve their abilities and critically evaluate all aspects of academic life (e.g., publishing industry, online engagement), I have found it essential to provide timely and meaningful support (and advocacy behind the scenes) in terms of logistics (e.g., equipment, immigration, childcare), funding (e.g., RA, thesis, dissemination, supplemental training), and feedback (e.g., findings, applications, manuscripts). It is critical to invest time in students, build relationships based on honesty and respect, and secure necessary resources to support their progress (e.g., funding, data, partnerships) to ensure my graduate students are provided a space to produce high-quality and useful research and accomplish their academic and non-academic goals. I have also found this approach to require me to improve my own knowledge and research abilities; a continual learning process that keeps me focused, relevant, and engaged.

Finally, my supervision efforts have both informed, and been informed by, a personal research focus on graduate student development. As outlined in recent publications, graduate students’ well-being can be reliably predicted by internal, motivational variables (e.g., self-efficacy; Jonas et al., 2019a,b,c,d; Feizi & Hall, 2018a,b,c; Feizi et al., 2018a,b). Moreover, findings show graduate student performance, persistence, and mental health to be substantially impacted by critical contextual factors (e.g., supervisor support, socialization, finances: Sverdlik et al., 2016, 2018; doctoral phase: Sverdlik & Hall, 2019; institutional resources: Hall, in press). With respect to specific recommended mentorship strategies following from both my experience and existing research, it is more important for supervisors to be available and accessible to graduate students for logistical and personal support than for content knowledge, and to focus consistently on core values underlying shared research efforts (e.g., internal quality, external impact). It is also essential for supervisors to provide opportunities for both training in academic writing competencies as well as professional socialization (e.g., academic conferences, departmental workshops), and to ensure equity and transparency regarding time, resources, and funding when supervising multiple students to prevent conflict. In sum, my own experiences and the extant literature on graduate student development underscore the importance of supervisor efforts to bolster both specific competencies and overall well-being to ensure healthy and productive graduate training outcomes.

Author

• Nathan C. Hall, McGill University