Getting personal – what does it mean? A critical discussion of the personal dimension of thesis supervision in higher education

Abstract

The argument of the article is that contemporary research into thesis supervision overlooks important didactical features of the supervisory dialogue because of its focus on general pedagogical categories. Entailing this argument I suggest that the personal dimension should be seen not only as a means to enhanced communication between supervisor and supervisee but as a way of manifesting personalised subject knowledge. As its point of departure the article gives a treatment of different understandings of the personal dimension in thesis supervision in contemporary research in Scandinavia and Britain. Subsequently these lines of research are contrasted with views on personality and professionalism found in prominent Danish and British research into the so-called ontological turn in higher education.