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Entangled Relationality in Doctoral Education: The Power of Life Histories and Time Mapping in Supervision
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Entangled Relationality in Doctoral Education: The Power of Life Histories and Time Mapping in Supervision

Catherine Manathunga, Jing Qi, Maria Raciti, Sue Stanton, Jiao Tuxworth (Mengjiao Wang), John Whop and Kathryn Gilbey
Shaping Doctoral Experiences: Nurturing the Relational, pp.61-82
Bloomsbury Publishing
2026
url
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/shaping-doctoral-experiences-9798216261421/View
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Abstract

Educational inequality Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
In the twenty-first century, doctoral education has been captured within a performance culture that emphasizes timely thesis progression and completions over the importance of researcher identity (re)formation and intellectual growth (Manathunga, 2019). Under the conditions of ‘cybernetic capitalism’ (Peters, 2015), the doctorate has been reconceptualized as a neoliberal exercise in efficient project management where supervisors and candidates work through a linear process towards the production of theses (Zembylas, 2023). Instead, the experience of studying for a doctorate and supervising candidates is often a complex pedagogical activity, where research does not necessarily progress unproblematically and life events often intervene to impede steady progress. The huge gap in the ways doctoral education is represented and understood in policy documents and guidelines and the realities many candidates and supervisors experience often provokes unnecessary anxiety and stress for all (Mura & Wijesinghe, 2022). Rather than minimalizing the complexity of doctoral supervision, we argue it is imperative that policy makers, university leadership, supervisors and candidates be encouraged to grapple honestly with the inherent supervision complexities....

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