Similar or different? : Researcher Community and Supervisory Support Experiences among Danish and Finnish Social Sciences and Humanities PhD Students

Purpose - This paper aims to explore the support experiences of 381 PhD students within the humanities and social sciences from three research-intensive universities in Denmark (n = 145) and Finland (n = 236). The study investigates the cross-cultural variation in the researcher community support and supervisory support experiences, factors associated with their support experienced and the perceived support fit. Design/methodology/approach - The study used a mixed methods design, both quantitative analyses and qualitative analyses (open-ended descriptions) were used. Findings - The results showed that students in both Danish and Finnish programs emphasized researcher community support over supervisory support. The Danish students, however, reported slightly higher levels of researcher community support and experienced lower levels of friction than their Finnish counter partners. The results also indicated that the only form of support in which the students expressed more matched support than mismatched support was informational support. Practical implications - The results imply investing in a stronger integration of PhD students into the research community is beneficial for the students' progress. Building network-based and collaborative learning activities that enhance both instrumental and emotional support and a collective form of supervision could be further developed. The possibility of Phd student integration in the scholarly community is likely to lead to more efficient use of finacial and intellectual resources in academia and society more broadly. Originality/value - This study offer a unique contribution on doctoral students' academic and socialization experiences in terms of explicationg the sources of support, support forms and support fit among Danish and Finnish doctoral students. Both invariants and socio-culturally embedded aspects of support experience among the students were detected.Peer reviewe

Online supervision at the university - A comparative study of supervision on student assignments face-to-face and online

Through an empirical study of supervision on student assignments at the university across face-to-face and online settings, we show firstly the limiting implications of traditional dichotomies between face-to-face and online supervision. Secondly we show that more attention must be given to the way different digital tools influence the supervisory dialogue. These findings illustrate a form of ‘torn pedagogy’; that online tools and platforms destabilize and tear traditional understandings of supervision pedagogy apart. Also we forge a new concept of “format supervision” that enables supervisors to understand and reflect their supervision practice as a deliberate choice between face-to-face and online formats

Researching online supervision: The need for a “torn” methodology

Online supervision and the use of digital media in supervisory dialogues is a fast increasing practice in higher education today. However, the concepts in our pedagogical repertoire often reflect the digital tools used for supervision purposes as either a prolongation of the face-to-face contact, or a poor substitution of such. This one-sidedness on the conceptual level makes it challenging to empirically study the deeper implications digital tools have for the supervisory dialogue. Drawing on phenomenology and systems theory we argue that we need new concepts in qualitative methodology that allow us to research the digital tools on their own premises as autonomous things in themselves, possessing an ontological creativity of their own. In order for qualitative research to match the ontological nature of digital tools we conclude the article by formulating three criteria of a ‘torn’ methodology that makes room for new approaches to researching online supervision at the university

Nærvær på afstand : En undersøgelse af asynkron, mundtlig vejledning og feedback

Artiklen beskriver en kvalitativ undersøgelse af brugen af asynkron, tekstindlejret, mundtlig vejledning og feedback på en bachelor- og kandidatuddannelse på et dansk universitet. Vi har undersøgt, hvordan det pædagogiske og mellemmenneskelige nærvær i den faglige vejledning og feedback kan bevares og styrkes selv under ændrede fysiske og digitale vilkår. Vi sætter særligt fokus på betydningen af ”stemme” som et element af digitalt understøttet vejledning og feedback, og vi undersøger dermed, hvordan kropslighed og personligt nærvær digitalt kan indlejres i asynkrone vejledningsforløb. Vi ønsker at supplere forskningen i multimodalitet i vejledning og kommunikation ved at undersøge, om færre modaliteter (i dette tilfælde tekst og lyd kombineret) samt det at udelade videodimensionen fra vejledningen kan give en skærpet oplevelse af vejleders og studerendes personlige og faglige stemmer, som kan danne grundlag for en anderledes konstruktiv form for lytning og opmærksomhed

Higher Education Futures:Part 5

In this section, five authors reflect on Sue Wright's academic trajectory, her work in creating disciplinary and interdisciplinary networks and her engagement – as both an activist and scholar – in institutional change-making. They also reflect on her research on university reform, neoliberalisation and higher education futures

"Vi er rigtig meget ens": Peer-dynamik i samarbejdet mellem specialeskrivende par

Fra 2015-2018 er antallet af parspecialer på Faculty of Arts (Arts) på Aarhus Universitet steget med næsten 300%. Der foreligger ikke systematisk forskning i, hvorfor der er en stigning, eller hvilke implikationer denne ændrede praksis har for hverken de studerendes læring eller vejledningen. Med afsæt i en Bakhtinsk forståelse af dialog undersøger vi, hvordan specialepars peer-dynamikker influerer på deres oplevelse af samarbejds- og læreprocesser. Empirien stammer fra et longtitudionelt studie, hvor fire specialepar har reflekteret på sammen på deres smartphones sammen tre gange i deres skriveproces. Analyserne viser, hvordan parrene i deres dialog løbende forhandler deres relation og faglighed, uden at de tilsyneladende undersøger de spændinger, som opstår undervejs i skriveforløbet. Vi konkluderer, at det kan øge de studerendes selvstændighed at skrive speciale sammen i par, da parret i et forpligtende samarbejde må træffe en række valg sammen, men tosomheden er også sårbar og kan blive et værn mod at undersøge den flerstemmighed, der i en Bakhtinsk forståelse er en forudsætning for læring

Drivers and interpretations of doctoral education today: National comparisons

Peer reviewe

Structure and dynamics of a nanodisc by integrating NMR, SAXS and SANS experiments with molecular dynamics simulations.

Nanodiscs are membrane mimetics that consist of a protein belt surrounding a lipid bilayer, and are broadly used for characterization of membrane proteins. Here, we investigate the structure, dynamics and biophysical properties of two small nanodiscs, MSP1D1ΔH5 and ΔH4H5. We combine our SAXS and SANS experiments with molecular dynamics simulations and previously obtained NMR and EPR data to derive and validate a conformational ensemble that represents the structure and dynamics of the nanodisc. We find that it displays conformational heterogeneity with various elliptical shapes, and with substantial differences in lipid ordering in the centre and rim of the discs. Together, our results reconcile previous apparently conflicting observations about the shape of nanodiscs, and pave the way for future integrative studies of larger complex systems such as membrane proteins embedded in nanodiscs