Developing Democratic Doctoral Supervisory Practices: experiences of using arts-based and embodied activities to support professional learning

Supervision is pivotal to doctoral students’ experiences, yet opportunities for doctoral supervisor development remain limited. This paper reports on preliminary findings from a case, that sits within a cross-national project on education for democracy, AECED. The case explores the development of democratic supervisory practices through arts-based and embodied activities and uses a participatory action research approach. Doctoral supervisors engaged with the project’s activating resources to design, trial and evaluate an aesthetic and embodied activity to support their reflection and learning around an aspect of doctoral supervision.

The paper will share learnings from the case, and report on the areas of practice explored and their connection with the principles of democracy-as-becoming; the arts-based and embodied activities employed and their contributions to professional learning regarding democratic doctoral pedagogy; and the process of engaging in participatory research. Implications for doctoral supervisors will be shared, alongside those for the wider AECED project.