How PhD advisors shape researchers' careers—and why it matters
A new study argues that doctoral supervisors play a critical role in shaping how students see themselves as researchers, not just in transmitting knowledge. Using psychological motivation theory, researchers suggest universities should rethink supervision as identity-building work—a shift that could improve retention, research quality, and the pipeline of early-career scientists.
Originaltitel: The Supervisor's Role in Facilitating the Doctoral Student's Identity Development
<p>In this reflective essay I discuss possible avenues for how the supervisor(s) of a doctoral candidate cancontribute to the candidate’s identity formation as a researcher, and their socialization into a larger academiccontext. I discuss the doctoral education as identity work, relational aspects of the supervision process, andfinally argue that tenets from the self-determination theory can be used as a guiding framework to understandwhich factors and drivers are important in the doctoral student’s identity development process. I conclude bydiscussing how such a framework can be useful for a reflective practice in doctoral supervision.</p>