PhD Journey: The Interplay between Learner Autonomy and Modes of Supervision

Autonomous learning has been the ultimate goal of education for over four decades and it is more so for doctoral students. However, the expectations and actual practices of both the supervisor and the supervisee may be conflicting. The degree of learner autonomy among doctoral students is an important aspect to examine especially with the varying supervision modes across the disciplines within the cultural context. This study investigates the relationship between learner autonomy and the modes of supervision. It also explores the expectations of doctoral students towards their PhD journey. Data were collected with two questionnaires: (1) the Autonomous Learning Scale (Macaskill & Taylor, 2010) and (2) the Quality in PhD Processes Questionnaire (Herrmann & Wichmann-Hansen, 2017). Participants were 152 Tunisian doctoral students from different fields of study. The results showed that learner autonomy positively correlates with the advising supervision mode and negatively correlates with the controlling modes. Overall satisfaction of the progress of the PhD was the most significant indicator of the Autonomous Learning Scale. The findings imply the necessity of supervisors to adjust and establish a balance between support and control so that doctoral students take ownership of the doctoral journey to autonomy. Keywords: Learner autonomy, doctoral students, supervision, culture, advising supervision DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/14-4-03 Publication date: May 30 th 2024