ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the various understandings of supervision across the six case studies. It explores similarities and differences of perspectives and experiences of doctoral supervision among the 33 supervisors and 64 doctoral researchers in the case studies. The chapter addresses this shortcoming as it includes perspectives from the post-Soviet contexts of Bulgaria and Poland, and the much less researched context of doctoral supervision in China. It presents the supervisors’ and doctoral researchers’ perspectives and experiences across five common themes: definitions of supervision; processes of supervision; learning doctoral supervision competences; the supervisor-student relationship; and internationalization and international students. A unifying understanding of the supervision process across the case studies was the idea that supervision encompasses a plurality of practices that respond to individuals’ needs; there is no one-size-fits-all, and there are no typical supervisions. Distinctions were also made between supervision on the one hand and teaching and training on the other hand.
