Via Beato Pellegrino, 28 - 35137 Padova | 049 827 8978
Access the private area
By Simone Visentin
Editor: Juliana Raffaghelli
Supervision is one of the most delicate and generative spaces within the doctoral experience: it is where research, care, guidance, and the gradual development of scholarly autonomy come together.
During a recent meeting with first-year doctoral candidates, the discussion unfolded around lived experiences, metaphors, and desires for change, bringing to light the richness of this professional relationship.
The reflections that follow aim to offer the doctoral forum an open dialogic space to consider how this experience might become increasingly meaningful and shared.
The exchange and mutual exploration were developed around three guiding questions:
Below, I outline some of the themes that emerged, with the hope that they may contribute to an ongoing dialogue about the doctoral experience itself.
The choice of a supervisor emerged through different pathways. Some participants described it as the continuation of a relationship already established during their Master’s degree, while others identified their supervisor after a series of conversations with academics whose profile aligned with their research interests.
Overall, after the first few months, mutual recognition and effective communication were identified as strong and already well-established elements of the doctoral candidate-supervisor relationship.
The discussion was guided by inviting participants to represent their first meeting with their supervisor through a metaphor. Within this evocative framework, several narratives emerged, each describing the beginning of a professional bond in unique ways. One participant imagined the first encounter in the greenery of a park; another visualised the relationship as a flower bulb, a promise of growth that requires time and patience to bloom. Someone else associated the beginning with a simple yet symbolic cup of coffee, representing a dialogue that starts with warmth and informality. Finally, one participant chose to bring a cake to the first meeting, highlighting how caring for the other can also pass through small acts of conviviality.
What emerges strongly, then, is the importance of bringing one’s whole self into the relationship. Creating spaces for dialogue and mutual knowledge is essential to nurturing a professional bond that is meant to last for years.
The journey is not without its complexities. Part of the relationship takes place via Zoom, often due to geographical distance and the saturated schedules of academic staff. Although technology helps reduce distance, the strong need for in-person meetings emerged as crucial for consolidating support around the research project.
A particularly significant point concerns organisational and bureaucratic difficulties, especially those related to planning research periods abroad. These aspects can generate uncertainty. For this reason, the working group decided to bring these issues to the attention of the programme coordination and the steering committee, so that systemic solutions may be found to facilitate each doctoral candidate’s international pathway.
Several proposals emerged from the discussion and are worth relaunching across all the spaces we share within this doctoral school as a stimulus for the whole community:
The invitation addressed to the doctoral candidates, but also to the entire SPEF community, is to be proactive: not to wait for supervisors to make proposals, but to take the initiative.
In this regard, participants were reminded of the possibility of using the Supervision Toolkit (a self-assessment tool available in our online work and learning environment) to activate reflection and dialogue on the doctoral candidate-supervisor relationship.
This offers a concrete way to encourage the regular planning of meetings, ensuring the continuity that is essential for a positive and productive doctoral experience.
