Supervision

My boss has asked to supervise a very difficult student. The student is not difficult because she is not capable of meeting the level. In fact, her project and intellectual abilities are astonishing and she may require a little bit of help with research skills but she is also capable of learning.

What makes her so difficult is the baggage she carries with her. The are many sides to this baggage: life has not treated her well, she has taken drastic decisions, her confidence in her abilities and/or the institution is not great, she has a lot of presage about what research is, her practice-led research presage is confused, she doesn’t understand the nature of supervision and, most inconveniently, she is economical with the truth which creates conflict amongst members of staff that just want to help her.

I have to say I am very excited by her project and challenged by the idea of being her supervisor. My boss is not going to throw me into this on my own. He or other senior member of staff will supervise with me. I have however, two main reservations about this supervision. First, what will it be like to help someone of these characteristics through the latter stages of the PhD, the most difficult ones? I have seen many completions and informally ‘supervised’ them, but never have been directly responsible for a student. There will have to be a first time. Second, when presented with this option, the student was hesitant about accepting as I don’t have a PhD myself (yet). When she told me, I stood my ground. I have 4 years of dedicated experience with practice-led researchers, I am a qualified supervisor, research active and I know about her field (drawing). Here is where her confusion about the nature of supervision makes her a difficult student. A 100% subject match is impossible in a PhD, as the student should know more than anyone about their subjects. The supervisor is there to guide, to support, to bring extra questions, an extra pair of eyes, to turn things around so there’s nothing left to chance. I know I can do that with her project. I have enough belief in it.

I guess the first difficulty will be a lot easier to surmount than the second one.