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Unraveling the implicit challenges in fostering independence: Supervision of Chinese doctoral students at Dutch universities

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Abstract

Training researchers represents a substantially deeply international activity for higher education, and yet the transition into independence, a critical aim of doctoral education, remains a challenge for both supervisors and doctoral students, especially those from different cultural backgrounds. Interactions between Chinese doctoral students and their supervisors at Dutch universities exemplify the challenges in such an intercultural context. Interviews with 21 Chinese doctoral students and 16 supervisors from three Dutch universities reveal three potential challenges to fostering independence: (1) misalignment in supervisors’ and students’ conceptualizations of independence due to implicit diversity; (2) misalignment between supervisory support and students’ zone of proximal development (ZPD) of independence, as derived from the broader ZPD concept, especially in the first year of the doctoral study; and (3) a gap between supervisors’ interpretation of students’ visible learning behavior and students’ actual concerns. We provide a rich description of these hidden challenges and conclude with a framework outlining the relationships among the three layers of challenges. In so doing, we provide detailed information and a practical tool for supervisors to increase students’ awareness and skills, accurately diagnose students’ ZPD, recognize and reduce any potential misalignments in time, and thereby support students’ transition into independence. We conclude by discussing the practical and theoretical implications of our findings for supervisors and students in other intercultural contexts to reflect on their own practices and explore new ways of promoting international students’ transition into independence.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Professor Petra Rudolf, who offered generous help in contacting potential participants and refining the interview scheme. Our sincere thanks also go to all participants for allowing us to step into their worlds and sharing their views.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Southwest University, Beibei District, Tiansheng 2, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Yanjuan Hu & Xiantong Zhao

  2. Teacher Education, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712 TS, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Yanjuan Hu & Klaas van Veen

Authors
  1. Yanjuan Hu
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  2. Xiantong Zhao
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  3. Klaas van Veen
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Correspondence to Xiantong Zhao.

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Informed consent was obtained from all participants using the “Form for informed consent concerning human participants research (update: February 20, 2013)” provided by Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen.

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Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the Teachers Education Department, University of Groningen (EC Ref No: 2017/1).

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Hu, Y., Zhao, X. & van Veen, K. Unraveling the implicit challenges in fostering independence: Supervision of Chinese doctoral students at Dutch universities. Instr Sci 48, 205–221 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-020-09505-6

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