Pushing boundaries in postgraduate supervision

The book is a very important contribution to the growing body of work on postgraduate, and specifically doctoral, education. The metaphor of pushing boundaries is very appropriate, as it suggests a field of study and a range of behaviours and institutional organisational approaches to postgraduate education that are dynamic and characterised by fluidity, creativity and challenge. Readers will gain new theoretical perspectives, ideas for improved practice, and fresh perspectives on boundaries and pressing issues that deserve to be pushed and conceptualised in new ways.

About the Author :
Eli Bitzer is Director of the Centre for Higher and Adult Education in the faculty of Education, Stellenbosch University (SU). He has worked for nineteen years in academic staff development at Free State University and for the past fifteen years he has taught at the master's level and supervised a substantial number of master's and PhD students at SU in higher education studies. He has published extensively in the field of higher education and his current fields of interest are postgraduate supervision, doctoral education and different aspects of quality promotion in higher education. Ruth Albertyn is currently involved in research and development in the field of postgraduate supervision, doctoral education, research methodology and academic writing. She is a research associate in the Centre for Higher and Adult Education in the faculty of Education, Stellenbosch University. She lectured and supervised postgraduate students for seventeen years in the faculty of Community and Health Sciences at the University of the Western Cape. She teaches research methodology in various disciplines and supervises students on a Master's and doctoral level. She has published in the field of adult and higher education both nationally and internationally. Liezel Frick is currently employed as a Senior Lecturer in Higher and Adult Education (Department of Curriculum Studies) at Stellenbosch University, where her research focuses on creativity in doctoral education. She has published various scholarly articles and book chapters related to this topic, as well as contributions on continuous professional development, assessment and recognition of prior learning, and improving students' learning outcomes. She is involved in various projects in the academic community related to student learning, continuing professional development, leadership development, and building research networks.

Review :
This book is a very important contribution to the growing body of work on postgraduate, and specifically doctoral, education. I find the metaphor of pushing boundaries to be very appropriate, as it suggests a field of study and a range of behaviours and institutional organisational approaches to postgraduate education that are dynamic and characterised by fluidity, creativity and challenge. Readers will gain new theoretical perspectives, ideas for improved practice, and fresh perspectives on boundaries and pressing issues that deserve to be pushed and conceptualised in new ways. Professor Ann Austin Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education, Michigan State University This book is a marvellous resource for all those who want to 'push boundaries' in postgraduate supervision and who wish to embrace new strategies, models and practices of supervision with confidence and credibility. It provides fresh ideas and theoretical perspectives around supervision, probes models and practices, and critiques policy and raises questions about the levels and kinds of support provided for postgraduate students and supervisors. This book will, by turns, challenge, provoke, stimulate, outrage and reassure postgraduate supervisors, researchers and managers in higher education. Professor Jane Castle Academic Staff Development, Centre for Learning, Teaching and Development, University of the Witwatersrand This book on postgraduate supervision will probably hold some interest for any academic who is involved in postgraduate supervision, but the real audience is those who are engaged with the scholarship of postgraduate supervision, who would be interested in the novel theoretical framings, the thoughtful discursive papers and the reports of empirical studies. The chapters are grounded in current debates within the field and they draw on and contribute to international research agendas. Professor Judy Backhouse School of Economic and Business Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand