I am in the stages where I am being matched up to a potential supervisor who will advise me on drafting my research proposal before formal submission and application. I am absolutely thrilled about how quickly this university (a really good one and only a few k's away) is responding to my inquiries and applications. No complaints there at all-whew!:p However, the potential supervisor who Ive been assigned to (by the Head of Department) appears to have a research profile that is pretty much math and math education oriented. My background is humanities and my Master's thesis was pretty much qualitative. In my proposal and the limitations section of my thesis, I said that I would need to do more of a mixed methods design with a larger population (and longer time period) for any real results (the thesis mainly brought to light what the key issues were) but now I am looking at this supervisor's profile and internally quaking!

She seems nice enough otherwise-really friendly and quick to respond and I think I would be her first doctoral student. I really don't think they are setting me up but I was quite shocked initially when I clicked on her profile. I am hoping that I am being placed on her workload, because I would be considered fairly likely to complete, therefore an okay first supervision? Not the other way around I hope! I am just thinking though, our background knowledge is likely to be quite different in many areas?

I meet her for the first informal meeting in about 10 days time, so I will find out a bit more then but I am trying to see what was behind the thinking of the Head of Department. My expression of interest was fairly comprehensive and explicit, even in the word limit given, I don't think my areas of interest could have been misinterpreted.

What have other people experienced? What sorts of things do you think are the most important in a supervisor?

======= Date Modified 25 Feb 2011 21:43:21 =======
======= Date Modified 25 Feb 2011 21:40:44 =======
I can see your point! I would be quaking if I thought I might get shoe-horned into an approach that I wasn't comfortable with. That said a quantitatively orientated supervisor woud be great if you do go with a mixed methods approach particularly as your own background is qualitative.

I think you're in Australia (??) and I'm not familiar with PhDs there but more and more [internationally] there are Graduate Education modules which students are encouraged to take, across the disciplines and across institutions at times. There are also summer and/or winter schools in qualitative methods and also schools in quantitative methods - perhaps you could take up one of these for the areas your supervisor is not an expert on? Also, a second supervisor could provide a balance for the qual side of things.

I would have thought the HoD teaming you up with this person is a good sign-any supv would want a 1st student who is likely to complete. I know in theory everybody should complete but my guess is that HoDs usually have a pretty good sense of these things at the outset, particularly if they are familar with your work. Possibly the HoD has enough faith in your qualitative abilities and that's why you got a quantitative supv to balance things out? It's also a good sign that your potential supv is quick to respond as we all know how frustrating it can feel to be forgotten!

My reply is a bit all over the place (sorry). I think you're right to be concerned but I don't think it's insurmountable (up)

Edit: two edits due to a plethora of typos :$ in my first reply. I think I need to head to bed!!

Good luck with it - keep us informed how things go:-)

Thanks Ady (and your reply was really clear-not all over the place at all). I think your advice about the modules is really good. As a matter of fact it reminded me that whether I do the Phd or the EdD (currently I am applying for both and seeing what they offer), I will have to do some modules outside of the doctoral project (both degrees require this). And the modules offered do focus on different types of methodology so that will be really useful.
Thanks for the confidence builder as well. Will let you know of the outcomes.