Reflecting on methodology and the PhD supervision partnership

Abstract

The usually once in a lifetime experience of completing a PhD is simultaneously an exciting yet risky one. While there are rules, policies and training which can inform the journey and best practice guidelines, there is no recipe which guarantees successful completion. There is no single ‘how to do research’ book or website which fully captures the complexity of the genre. This paper relates to one journey and highlights a particular qualitative research methodology. It provides insight into the topic of Art and Ephemera and research questions which were framed by a poststructuralist theoretical perspective. It is a celebratory forum where two experienced art educators reflect on their higher degree research supervision partnership. The storytellers are candidate Anne Lord and supervisor Linda Ashton. The reflections about methodology are interspersed with selected references from the literature about the supervision process. The writing style for this paper is that of reconstructed conversations, echoing our scholarly voices and shared place of work and research at James Cook University in Northern Australia.