Hello all,

I'm sure you're as frustrated with your life right now as I am, I suppose I'll just get to the questions.

Why - WHY - does my supervisor insist on asking vague questions, shooting down almost deliberately all of my ideas, being vague and tangential, and just basically removing any motivation I had to get my degree done? I arrived here last September with as much "gumption" as one can potentially have, and in 5 months I feel like I've made completely the wrong choices in life.

All this man does is ask questions like "can you support that?" "what do you mean by X" where X is any word in the English language, which is then followed by the first question. Furthermore, he shoots down scholars left right and centre in a discipline in which he's done little/no reading, draws parallels between his discipline and mine (interdisc. PHD) that make no sense, and disagrees with me when I tell him so.

Further, in his papers, he asks unclear questions, prompts for exposition on things with no direction, and just generally makes me feel like I'm wasting a lot of time (and even more money).

Does anyone have any suggestions? Is it NORMAL for Ph.D. supervisors to be the most unhelpful people in the world?

Cheers

As most people on this site will tell you the variation in quality of supervision is as wide as you can imagine. Style and approach to supervision is often a product of a range of factors (their own experience of supervision as a student, experience as a supervisor, other commitments, knowledge of the subject area, personality - plus a lot more) and some supervisors think that constantly questioning every aspect of a piece of work is good supervision. I, and I think you are the same, do not appreciate that approach. My old supervisor sounds like yours, and I was forced to ask for a new member of staff. My new Sup just let me write the first draft of the whole thesis so they could understand the broader argument then together we pick through the detail. For me its a much better style, although others may not find it so...
The issue is that this *is* the style of supervision you have, and you cannot change the way they do it. What you can do is get more people on board (a co-supervisor?) and see if they are any different. I would just ask you though - is this person senior or a fairly junior member of staff? I tend to find that more junior staff have this style of supervising

Hi! Welcome to the forum!

Sorry to hear about your sup, though when you started did you have an intellectual exchange with them to see if your ideas click or not, and generally whether they are ready to proceed WITH you rather than against you? Also, if disciplines and field sdo not match at all, it may be a bit difficult to be on the same page always.

No, sups are not always like that, there are all kinds of sups (as there are all kinds of students!) Mine is a god-send! I guess the option is to either change sups (which is a tough thing to do, but many do do it) or seek advice from your programme director. Also what doo their other students say about their style?

Good luck and hope the issue is solved quickly!

Humm, no he's very senior. Quite well published, etc. He just seems to...

Well you've heard the anecdote "when you have a hammer everything looks like a nail" many times I'm sure.
This fellow has a "hammer" (the style of instructional technology - my focus - he's been doing for years), and I have a "nail" (my thesis).
He is POSITIVE that his particular research, preexisting styles of research etc. apply to my particular work, which I hold is incorrect...

E.G. I am working with new technologies (specifically video games) as they apply to education, and how we can teach for/from/through them.
He feels, then that an Intelligent Tutor (an archaic, unused, poorly tested, 1980's concept) is tantamount if not equal to a modern gaming device.
When I try to explain to him that 29 years is an EON in technological terms, he rejects those assertions outright - as if that doesn't matter.

Hmmm interesting topic, are you working with any of the digital literacies literature?

That does sound like an interesting topic, MatthewDubya. It really sounds as though you would benefit from an additional supervisor. Since your thesis is interdisciplinary, it would make sense to have one from each discipline. I don't know about the UK, but in Australia it is common practice for PhD students to have two supervisors. It just makes so much sense, especially when academics have this habit of disappearing overseas for six months study leave. At least you then still have someone left to guide you.

With the sorts of questions your supervisor is asking, it sounds as though he is just trying to challenge you to really think through your ideas. I wouldn't take it personally. When we begin this sort of process we often come at it with lots of assumptions that we don't even realise we have. I think he is just trying to make you question more. I remember early on when I was working on my lit review and I sent some work in progress to my supervisors which mentioned 'student needs.' One of them came back and asked me what I meant by 'needs', as it can have different meanings in different disciplines. It seems like your supervisor might be trying to be helpful but is not going about it the best way.

If I were you I would definitely make enquiries about getting a co-supervisor - someone more familiar with new technologies. Good luck.