Supervisor Wellbeing

Being a supervisor is a responsible, time consuming job and often supervisors experience stress in their roles. Research often focusses on student wellbeing and resilience and few recent studies are beginning to look at academic identity issues and supervisor stress and wellbeing. There are some areas of our work which could be stressful and some suggestions from the research and other practice which could help build resilience and foster wellbeing so that the role is more enjoyable and rewarding, intellectually and personally, and so that the research work and research partnership can proceed more smoothly.

Findings from research projects

Supervisor note issues and strategies across the three dimensions of personal, learning and institutional.

Personal

Supervisors identify stress and concerns which affect wellbeing deriving from interactions with students related to:

emotional, professional and intellectual issues

which also affect their own sense of identity and wellbeing in

            emotional

            professional,

            intellectual terms.

These issues include

            responses to individuals’ needs and demands, personal and intellectual;

            balances between responsibility and autonomy;

            some uncomfortable conflicts arising from clashes in personality and/or clashes related to authority and ownership.

            the actual progress of the research and writing project – feeling unsure about advice, or understanding in the learning dialogue with students.

 institutional

            Institutional expectations and formal milestones can cause stress but are also seen to offer structured strategies for moving forward.

            Some of the issues relate to time allocated and the balance with other demands on supervisor time. T[t]he diversity and the work load becomes more varied and complex…it’s all their teaching work, undergrad post grad, many administrative activities. (2, H

            The diversity together with the overload has to do with it, it takes more energy from a person to actually be dealing with many diverse tasks and having to juggle with them than having a high work load of one type of task.

            Another issue arises from the supervisor’s allocation of projects, since some supervise in their specialist area and others are expected to supervise in much broader areasSome responses related to ‘nudging’ students to cross conceptual thresholds (Wisker et al., 2010) i.e. to work at an appropriate conceptual, critical and creative level for a PhD rather than, for example, merely being busy. I’m not always sure if I’m doing the right thing with them. I would offer them certain theory responses. I think that a doctoral student should really be doing their own research. (2, B

            Supervisor challenges

            Supervisors in our research have admitted conflict in their own sense of self-worth when they could neither engage students as learners on their journey, nor fully understand how they conceptualised.

            Findings: learning

            issues related to identity

            allocation of often unsuitable project

            anxieties about contribution to the student learning

            ‘compassion fatigue’

            concerns about their professional practice related to the lack of progress made by some students when their own sense of professional practice, success, was tied up with such cognitive intellectual development and achievement.

            sense of being undermined by undertaking compulsory training/re-training

            lack of information and support

            overwork

            expectations of the university of productivity in terms of throughput of successful students, within the allotted time., and the supervisor completing their own research.

            Some of the ‘solutions’ or ways of handling stress are the same as in any other professional work situation, and others specifically suit the supervisor role with its intellectual as well as individual demands, the issues of quality, professional academic identity, and the time spent with postgraduates –which is longer than that with undergraduates

            What can you do about it?

            Be realistic and consider your academic identity, how you are both developing as learners, consider the person, the project and the context.

            Work hard with your professional view of yourself and your responsibilities –this is the student’s project(even if part of a larger funded project) but it is also your responsibility to ensure that all possible is done to enable them to carry it out and achieve. You cannot do it for them however, your role is to enable them to develop research and research management skills work on the project and the written thesis to completion, at an appropriate masters or doctoral level so that they can takes those achievements and skills onto further future work. There are others who can support other elements of the work and of the personal and social dimensions so be aware of those, and advise students to find other support in addition to your professional personal support.

            Are you going to offer students empathy or sympathy? Can you be someone who works in a very structured way to a project management model?

            Students need a community and this gives supervisors more space not to deal with the relatively easy to fix problems since they can share insider knowledge between them – we have less workload. The students could, for example, develop critical friendships and circulate drafts of their work. This means it comes in already in a neater, better expressed form, so we can concentrate on errors, on scientific or other research work, more complex issues of theory and so on.

            Working with a community of supervisors and co supervisors offers opportunity to share out different tasks with supervision, playing to different strengths, learn from each other, discuss issues which have arising with students and share good practice and counsel. We found that supervisors offered fewer strategies for wellbeing and resilience than we had expected.

            Strategies are gathered here under general strategies and strategies which are more specific to the context and role.

            General strategies not always specific to the role of supervision or the HE context:

            However, strategies which emerged from the earlier research which looked at doctoral students seem to be echoed here as applicable to both students and supervisors:

            Strategies for wellbeing and resilience suggested by supervisors

            Personal coping strategies;

            Time management;

            Work/study/life balance– sports, walking the dog, watching films/listening to music, taking breaks

            Emotional and practical support – family/friends; peers; supervisors; support services. Some specific supervisor wellbeing enhancement strategies mainly aimed to support the student but by managing the role and student experience, supervisors felt that they can lead to a more rounded sense of wellbeing, and they include personal, learning and institutional areas:

            Supervisor strategies which are more specific to the context and role-related to students and their projects, in context.

            develop a holistic view of student;

            supervision tailored to needs, learning styles;

            project management;

            encourage questioning;

            sharing experiences and good practice with other supervisors ;

            signposting (colleagues, peers; networks)so students also rely on others and develop networks;

            encouraging participation in conferences;

            using listening skills, empathy;

            keeping regular contact (e.g. email);

            giving constructive feedback so students can develop their work from your advice ;

            pastoral care: taking care of the student, being aware of their differences and different needs, joining them into communities and groups and discussing learning expectations all seemed to help manage the relationships and the students’ own progress and so lessen supervisor stress and enhance resilience and wellbeing.

            These engaged issues to do with the community, professional identity, role, and the institution.self-awareness; perseverance; open mindedness, being prepared to listen to criticism and work out ways to overcome issues with students, the project, time balance, the institution.

            Supervisors from our research said

            ‘I reduced my stress by getting confirmation of the problem but also by bringing other people in because I thought if other people approach this from different angles maybe they will make the breakthrough that I can’t make. (2, G)

            Conditions for academic wellbeing for both students and supervisor include- a summary

            Academic community – formal and informal opportunities to contribute;

            Supportive infrastructure – access to services, facilities, pastoral care, monitoring.

            Some of this can be managed through a time and project management approach with deadlines and tasks and regular meetings.

            Often institutional arrangements can help for instance in keeping students to time managed outputs- transfer, progress reports, readiness for the examination- involving others in scrutinizing students’ work and advising on termination of the study, or extending time or bringing in other perhaps specialist support.

            This and imagining forward to positive results, telling yourself positive stories about the success of your student and your feelings of satisfaction and success- can all help enhance wellbeing, and build resilience.

            It is also important to take time to focus on your own life, your research and writing, your work, and on activities which take you away from your work so that like the Swedish Nobel prize winners, you can get your best ideas and solve problems while you are also relaxing, walking, taking exercise, listening to music- and you can de stress while you are clearing your mind.

            Some of it can be managed by reminding yourself that this is a personal professional human interaction and tat emotions are often involved-not to be too critical in a destructive senses, but be critical in a constructive sense and supportive it out doing the work for the student. This management of the experience should relieve tension and stress. So should sharing your experiences and thoughts with others who supervise and have some advice to give, with setting specific office and virtual office hours so students are not entirely dependent on regular time with you.

            Concluding thoughts

            Being a supervisor can be stressful – there are demands on time, the progress of the student varies, you feel implicated in their development or lack of it and in whether or not they seem to be making practical or conceptual progress.

            we have looked at developing-

            Pro-wellbeing culture – proactive, built into academic life;

            Pro-research student culture – guidance, mentoring; training opportunities – personal/professional, technical and academic skills; access to funding;

            One of our respondents said

            I can now counsel supervisors who are stuck in the same positions because it’s happened so I’ve learnt from it. (2, G)

            ‘As a PhD is intrinsically an individualistic enterprise, it is important to nurture student resilience through creating a sense of belonging and developing relationships.’ (1, B)

            References

            The ‘troublesome encounters’ project on postgraduate students’ wellbeing and stress in education (Morris and Wisker, 2011)Picking up the Pieces’ (Wisker and Robinson, 2013)

            Supervisor wellbeing Wisker and Robinson, 2016 in

            ‘Doctoral Orphans’ (Wisker and Robinson, 2012)