The Presence and Efficacy of Supervision Styles: A Case Study of a Professional Doctoral Programme in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Rihab Khalifa
United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, UAE
Volume 13: 2018, pp. 157-180; ABSTRACT
This article documents a study of the supervisory styles used in a professional doctoral programme located in the UAE. The study sought to investigate the prevalence of different styles and their effects on the success of the doctoral students and successfully meeting the programme learning outcomes. It followed a qualitative approach, utilising phenomenology and discourse analysis in identifying supervisory styles and examining their success. The study found that only four of the five supervisory styles defined by Lee (2008) were used. It also found that students who struggled to complete the programme began their doctoral studies with an emphasis on the enculturation supervisory style, emphasising disciplinary norms at the expense of explicit instructions by the supervisor. The article suggests that the realised supervisory styles may be determined by students’ insistence on explicit guidance by their supervisors. Supervisors may, at least temporarily, accommodate students in this respect in order to support their progress, especially on professional doctorates.
ORDER ARTICLE PERMISSIONS/REPRINTS/OFFPRINTS
To order permissions to include this article in textbooks, edited volumes, course booklets, online/digital course packs, etc., and/or to order multiple individual hard copies for classroom use, please use the appropriate form available on the Order Forms page or alternatively, contact the Publishing Editor pneilson@neilsonjournals.com directly.
