Interaction in PhD supervision: a qualitative study of a supervision session with multiple supervisors

This paper contains an analysis of a single supervision session, undertaken with the aim of identifying how learning opportunities might be created for a PhD student. The supervision session concerned methodologies to be employed in a PhD study related to storm water management and included the PhD student, her principal supervisor and two co-supervisors. The analysis is informed by positioning theory, where a conversation is viewed as a tri-polar structure of speech-act, positioning, and storylines. Positioning is the act of assigning rights and duties to oneself and to others and storylines are the personal use of the cultural context. The analysis of positioning and construction of storylines enables us to describe a learning situation where the cultural context can be framed as how the researchers in this particular research environment talk about ‘scientifically sound’ research. A learning opportunity is created for the PhD student as a participant in the academic discussion with her supervisors about the research methodologies. The involvement of multiple supervisors appears to enrich the learning environment and help create learning opportunity.