3.2 Confessions of a doctoral supervisor: valuing interdependence  (Page 10/12)

Given the synergistic nature of the cohort, power must be balanced between the professor and the peers, and among the students themselves. Realizing the importance of authority, governance, and control as potential issues, I have sought honest feedback on the power dynamics within the group. Student feedback has suggested that power within the group is generally balanced. One WIT plainly stated:“There is no power imbalance. Our agenda is student generated. Everyone shares ideas and notions equally. My professor makes sure that all meetings have a“round robin”format, so there’s time for each person to share suggestions.”

The WIT cohort draws its strength from these highly synergetic relationships and dynamics. Indeed, the comfort and security of membership is of uppermost importance, as a feeling of safety helps ensure intellectual risk-taking:“It’s like I know exactly what my peers are going through because I have been through it before, or I’m going through it right now. That is a very comforting thought.”Another WIT added:“I really look forward to meeting with the WITs. I know when I leave each session I will do so with something valuable that I can use to improve my writing and myself.”

Mentoring Creed—Rule #7 (Constructive Criticism)

Importantly, students find the critiques of their writing critical to their development and progress and an invaluable aspect of the mentoring cohort. Assistance with deepening thinking and improving writing within the context of social science inquiry is a primary motivator for attending meetings and helping others. Here is how one WIT explained this transformative process:

At first, I was really discouraged by the complexity of the comments made at the meetings and the numerous writing changes. But I got over it. I realized that if I really thought hard about the issues raised and considered what the group suggested relative to my own writing that my work would probably get much better. And it did. And I’m also moving along faster.

Internalizing constructive criticism, another commented:“With the feedback I receive that I reflect in my papers, I can see myself growing as a writer within a social context.”

Critical support is also extended in an effort to help WITs with the difficulty they face clearly and completely expressing their ideas. As a result, the meaning and significance of their research findings are often obscured due to imprecise and overly complicated sentence structures. Addressing this challenge sometimes requires such writing activity as simplifying sentences, adding explanation, examples, or qualifiers, incorporating evidence for assertions, and removing hyperbole. During the WIT sessions we actually undertake rewriting some ideas and sentences together. The students whose works are being reviewed are often asked to state aloud what they mean by a particular idea; from there, clarity is rendered orally and the new thoughts are immediately translated into written form.

Constructive criticism is offered within the group regarding conceptualizing, developing, and formatting one’s research, as well as creating the instruments for data collection and outlining procedures. The cohort provides a place for the research format to be discussed and explained. WITs share among themselves their own wise counsel, as in:“As we have learned in this room, whatever you pick as the magical number of people to interview, make sure it makes sense to you. You have to justify the number selected to your committee. It’s a meaningful selection, not arbitrary.”Another agreed:“Yes, this is where my committee nailed me. I had to have a reason as to why I picked the number that I did but I couldn’t think of one.”