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The Scholarship of Graduate Supervision

Visitors explore a grand library hallway with towering bookshelves in an iconic university.

Here you will find a curated collection of academic journal articles and research-based resources focused on graduate supervision that support ongoing professional learning and reflective practices.

Effective Practices

  • Read Best Practices at Western University (.pdf). This is a guide for supervisor-student conversations regarding expectations by Carol Benyon, Centre for Teaching and Learning.
  • Read Doctoral Mentorship Practices in Canadian Political Science (.pdf) by L. Berdahl, J. Malloy & L. Young (2022). This study of political science faculty from political science departments offering PhD programs in the English language finds that graduate supervision is changing over time, with mentorship practices becoming both more common and more varied.
  • Read Educational Development for Quality Graduate Supervision (.pdf) by H. Alharbi and M. Jacobsen (2016). This article focuses on the role of graduate supervisors, contributing factors to successful graduate supervision experiences along with different types of support for successful supervision.
  • Read Fit Matters in the Supervisory Relationship: Doctoral Students and Supervisors Perceptions about the Supervisory Activities (pdf). Innovations in Education and Teaching International by Kirsi PyhĂ€ltö, Jenna Vekkaila & Jenni Keskinen (2015)52:1, 4-16, DOI: 10.1080/14703297.2014.981836
  • Read (.pdf) by S. Becker, M. Jacobsen & S. Friesen (2025). This article examines how mentoring practices support online doctoral students’ academic writing, building on prior research that identified five enabling factors of effective online doctoral supervision, with a focus on cultivating a collaborative online community of support for academic writing.
  • Read A Good Supervisor: Ten Facts of Caring Supervision (.pdf) by K. Maatta (2015). This article describes the elements of caring supervision in ten facts that illustrate the multidimensional nature of a supervision relationship.
  • Read "I call it the hero complex” - Critical considerations of power and privilege and seeking to be an agent of change in qualitative researchers’ experiences (pdf) by Oakley, L., Fenge, L.-A., & Taylor, B. (2022). Qualitative Research in Psychology, 19(3), 587–610. https://doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2020.1718813
  • Read The Impact of Sensitive Research on the Researcher: Preparedness and Positionality (pdf) by Fenge, L. A., Oakley, L., Taylor, B., & Beer, S. (2019). International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 18. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406919893161
  • Read The Role of Intercultural Competence (.pdf) on Graduate Supervisor-Supervisee Relationship and Well-Being by E. Amery, K. Koh, Z. Caceres & B. Paris (2022). This article discusses the importance of developing intercultural competence, how it improves the supervisory relationship and contributes to collective well-being.
  • Read Spotlight on Best Graduate Supervision Practices from University Affairs (.pdf) also available in . S. Fiset, E. Bennett, J. Brown, N. Bhiry, M. Zulkernine, S. Fraser, L-J. K. van den Scott and A-M. Tremblay talk about their approaches to supervision.

Indigenous Scholarship

  • Read Crediting and Citing Indigenous Knowledges Within Research (2026) (pdf) by Barry, C., Muir, B., Backhaus, V., Coyne, C., Donnelly, E., Evans-Illidge, E., Ferreira, L. C., Flagg, D., Fletcher, M.-S., Gleiss, A. C., Harris, M., Hounslow, J. L., Kampers, D., Keevers-Lock, L., Koroi, C., Mamtora, J., Marshall, M., Meekan, M. G., Poelina, A., Ropeyarn, Y. (Angkamuthi, Yadhaykenu, Woppaburra, Meriam), Russell, L., Thums, M., Tobler, R., Ulm, S., & Bradshaw, C. J. A. This article examines the complexity of crediting and citing Indigenous Knowledges in Australian research contexts, arguing that no single citation standard can account for the diversity of First Nations knowledge systems, governance structures, and sovereignty requirements. The authors propose a dynamic citation protocol built on prerequisites including free prior and informed consent, established relationships, data sovereignty, and institutional infrastructure to support First Nations communities in retaining authority over their own Knowledges.
  • Read Ensemble Mentorship as a Decolonising and Relational Practice in Canada by Poitras Pratt, Yvonne & Bodnaresko, Sulyn & Scott, Michelle. (2021) (pdf). This article explores how three Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators in a Canadian university context use ensemble mentorship as a collaborative, heterarchical practice to decolonize teaching and learning and advance reconciliation. Drawing on Indigenous knowledge traditions, the authors propose ensemble mentorship as an ethical alternative to neoliberal education models that centers relationality and social justice.
  • Read Indigenous Mentorship for the Health Sciences: An Appraisal of a Contemporary Model by Indigenous Stakeholders by Atay, E. J., Murry, A. T., Barnabe, C., Sawyer, O., & Bednar, M. A. (2024) (pdf). This study examined how six Indigenous mentees in health sciences responded to an existing model of Indigenous mentorship, finding that the model broadly resonated with their experiences, particularly around relationalism, Indigenous identity development, and mentee-centered support. Mentees also identified gaps in the model, including the need to incorporate traditional knowledge transfer, institutional context, and diverse mentoring relationships, offering practical direction for strengthening Indigenous mentorship programs.
  • Read Indigenous Stories of Mentorship by Sawyer, O., Murry, A. T., Atay, E. J., Bednar, M. A., & Barnabe, C. (2024) (pdf). This qualitative study shares the stories of six Indigenous mentees in health science, capturing their struggles, successes, and experiences through narrative analysis and Indigenous Storywork to identify recurring themes of struggle, overcoming, and traditional ways of learning. The findings are intended to give Indigenous mentees a voice and inform health education and mentorship programs in their support of Indigenous students.
  • Read Operationalizing the CARE and FAIR Principles for Indigenous Data Futures (2021) (pdf) by Carroll, S.R., Herczog, E., Hudson, M. et al. This article addresses the gap between open science data frameworks and Indigenous Peoples' rights to control their own data, arguing that current systems prioritize access over sovereignty. The authors propose that combining the FAIR Principles for scientific data with the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance centers people and purpose alongside technical functionality to uphold Indigenous data rights across the full data lifecycle.

Supervision as Pedagogy

  • Read Building a Framework of a Supportive Pedagogical Culture for Teaching and Pedagogical Development in Higher Education (.pdf). by Myllykoski-Laine, S., Postareff, L., Murtonen, M., and Vilppu, H (2022). The study proposes a framework of supportive elements of pedagogical culture that should be acknowledged when promoting the development of teaching in university communities. Based on the findings, it is especially important to establish a culture of sharing and to promote the value of teaching through various cultural elements.
  • Read Professional Learning and Development Frameworks for Postdoctoral Scholars (.pdf). by Nowell, L., Dhingra, S., Kenny, N., Jacobsen, M., and Pexman, P (2021). Many postdoctoral scholars are seeking professional learning and development (PLD) opportunities to prepare for diverse careers, roles and responsibilities. This paper aims to develop an evidence-informed framework for PLD of postdoctoral scholars that speaks to these changing career paths.
  • Read by Christine Bruce and Susan Gasson in (Vol 2). This chapter discusses the emergence and role of the Scholarship of Supervision and how to engage with it to inform supervisory practice and roles within the broader collaborative research community.
  • Read Supervision As Pedagogy: Attending to Its Essential Instructional and Learning Processes (.pdf) by Rodney Goodyer. This article discusses the four learning strategies of modeling, feedback, direct instruction, and self-directed learning through reflective practice, arguing that their effects are mediated by the quality of the supervisory relationship.
  • Read The Pedagogy of 'Good' PhD Supervision (.pdf). This is a national cross-disciplinary investigation of PhD supervision by Mark Sinclair.
  • Read Towards a Pedagogy of Supervision in the Technology Disciplines (.pdf) by C. Bruce with support for the original work provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The article describes a pedagogy of higher degree research supervision for the technology disciplines and has has investigated technology supervisors’ thinking around pedagogy in the higher degree research context.

Student Perspectives

  • Read Examining Canadian Graduate Students' Views on Ideal Supervision: A Qualitative Coding Approach (.pdf) by M. Jacobsen, S. Johnston, T. Butler, A. Paquette & M. Baragar (2025). The article describes the creation and application of a qualitative coding framework—a systematic method for categorizing and coding textual data—to synthesize 824 student responses to an open-ended survey question.
  • Read by Laura Anderson in (Vol 2).
  • Read by Heri Heriyanto in (Vol 2).

Supervision and Power

  • Read Doctoral Supervision as an Academic Practice and Leader-Member Relationship: A Critical Approach to Relationship Dynamics by Peltonen, J., et al. (2021) (pdf). Drawing on interviews and written stories from 33 doctoral students, findings demonstrate supervisory relationships to be leader-follower relationships that contain imbalanced power relations, with critical moments pushing relationships toward either fruitful cooperation or destructive outcomes.
  • Read Examining the Experiences of Racialized and Indigenous Graduate Students as Emerging Researchers by Park, A. S. J., and Bahia, J. (2022) (pdf). This Canadian study explores the experiences of graduate students as researchers who are Black, Indigenous, and people of colour in the social sciences and humanities in Canada. While supervisors play wide-ranging, essential roles for students, these graduate students often report problematic relationships with their supervisors, are less likely than white peers to feel respected, and are more likely to feel their supervisors hold negative assessments of their ideas.
  • Read The Mental Labyrinth of Postgraduate Research: A Qualitative Study of Postgraduate Mental Health and Wellbeing and the Impact of the Supervisory Relationship by White, N., Milicev, J., Bradford, D. R. R., et al. (2024) (pdf). This study found that recognizing the persisting stigma surrounding mental health in the context of the power imbalance in the supervisory relationship is essential to improving student wellbeing. It illuminates multifaceted structural inequities that compounded feelings of isolation and uncertainty, and shows that supervisory relationships can mitigate or exacerbate the impact of these factors on students' psychological wellbeing.
  • Read Power-Conscious Ecosystems: Understanding How Power Dynamics in US Doctoral Advising Shape Students' Experiences by Friedensen, R. E., Bettencourt, G. M., and Bartlett, M. L. (2023) (pdf). This narrative inquiry study examined how 28 doctoral students in STEM fields navigated power in their advising relationships.