“We Don’t Tolerate it but Yes, it Does Happen”: Structural Facilitators and Barriers to Addressing Harm in Graduate Supervision

Effective graduate supervision is recognized as an essential part of preparing the next generation of researchers and educators. Quality graduate supervision has been shown to contribute to graduate student satisfaction, well-being, and completion. Correspondingly, research suggests that poor supervision negatively impacts student well-being and retention. In spite of the extant research, supervisory harm is still a major problem globally and in Canadian research-intensive universities. I engaged a qualitative case study to examine the issue of graduate supervisory harm in one Canadian research-intensive university. Specifically, I sought to answer the question: to what extent do the policies and processes of the Canadian research-intensive university under study facilitate and/or limit the ability of leaders in graduate education to address harm in graduate supervision? I reviewed relevant policies, procedures, and best practice resources used by the institution under study in order to prepare for 10 semi-structured interviews with current or past leaders in graduate education who could speak to experiences at 10 of the 13 faculties involved in graduate education. Employing a critical lens, I conducted a structural analysis of my findings, concluding that addressing supervisory harm has economic, political, regulatory, cultural, and educational elements and therefore requires interventions in each of those dimensions. Key interventions include revision of student funding approaches, additional options for complaint review, changes to leader hiring practices, mobilization of faculty association members, redesign of disclosure office practices, policy updates, statistics monitoring, workload changes, formal recognition of supervision, development of a supervisory culture, faculty development for graduate supervisors and education leaders, and specific training for graduate students.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education Graduate Program – Educational Research

Grantor

Werklund School of Education

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Kelly-Turner, Kenna

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kawalilak, Colleen

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Lenters, Kimberly
• Groen, Janet

• Graduate Supervision
• Supervisory Harm
• Supervisory Relationship
• Educational Leadership

Statement dc:rights

• Unless otherwise indicated, this material is protected by copyright and has been made available with authorization from the copyright owner. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/51087

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/124123