Supervisors supporting supervisors in the context of higher education

This paper reports on a study investigating the implementation of peer support groups (PSGs) for the purpose of supervisor development in higher education. The context for the study is a national doctoral programme in Norway, where PSGs were introduced as an important part of measures aimed at the development of PhD supervisors. The aim of the PSGs was to establish forums for discussions of specific challenges that the supervisors faced in their supervision. Furthermore, our aim was to contribute to supervision development via meaning-making, problem-structuring and problem-solving. The supervisors discuss challenges from their own supervision practices according to a specific five-phase model. Using a combination of thematic analysis and interaction analysis, we found that the discussions enabled by the PSGs resulted in altered comprehensions of the challenging situations the supervisors faced, as well as thoroughly considered strategies with which to progress.