Family, School, Community Engagement and Partnerships

Master’s degree programmes are on the rise, attracting growing numbers of international students who speak English as a second or additional language. Experiencing Master’s Supervision: Perspectives of International Students and their Supervisors explores the experiences of supervising and being supervised at Master’s level, charting the difficulties and joys of learning for second language speakers of English while based at a UK university.

The authors report the findings of a year of studying both supervisees and their supervisors in four different departments in the social sciences and humanities at a UK research-intensive university. Using a multiple case study approach, and examining supervision in its natural context, this book presents rich descriptions of five case studies: three student-supervisor dyads and two cases of individual students. Analysing rich, first-hand narratives, chapters identify key aspects of satisfaction and dissatisfaction through the eyes of the participants, focusing upon expectations, supervision styles, feedback and students’ support networks, and discussing the broader implications for university and departmental policy makers, responsible for guidelines and requirements.

This book contains important insights into the supervisory experience at Master’s level and will appeal to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of higher education, TESOL, TEFL/TESL and applied linguistics. This book will also be a useful resource for supervisors, leaders of training sessions for supervisors, and for postgraduate directors and teaching committees at universities who develop supervisory guidelines and preparatory sessions for Master’s students.

1. Introduction 2. Our Study 3. 'This is not my topic but I'll help as much as possible': Jay & Billy's story 4. 'I've not done this before, I want to be told exactly what to do': Victoria and Harriet's story 5. 'And I panicked and I couldn't focus and I felt it all crumbling down on me again!': Laura and Rosie's story 6. 'I had this opportunity. So yes - I took it': Clara's story 7. 'My objective is not to learn how to work without supervision. My objective is somebody can teach me something': Janet's story 8. Discussion and conclusion References Appendices Appendix A: Sample interview schedule for supervisees Appendix B: Sample interview schedule for supervisors Appendix C: Writing log instructions Appendix D: "Talk aloud" instructions Appendix E: Information sheet for participants Appendix F: Coding: independently summarizing interviews Appendix G: Refining start list of codes: an excerpt from the record of disagreements, problems, and action taken Appendix H: Examples of refinements of the start list of supervisee codes using Word's Track Changes Appendix I: Final list of codes: supervisee interviews Appendix J: Final list of codes: supervisor interviews