9: Joys, Challenges and Responsibilities of the Doctoral Supervision Relationship: Perspectives From Three Countries

Recognizing that there are diverse ways of achieving excellent doctoral education, we reflect on our country-specific experiences from India, Zambia and the United States. We bring out the joys, challenges and responsibilities of supervision and co-supervision: from an advisee's perspective, travelling from a research novice to becoming an independent researcher, from a junior professor's view and from the landscape of a senior supervisor. By sharing our lessons learnt, we show how a global set of values guides the supervising relationship. We realize the supervisor–supervisee relationship is a professional one with power connotations. Nevertheless, it can, and we suggest should, be a mentor–mentee relationship with the goals of academic nurturing, of helping the development of the inner personal and professional potentialities and of becoming aware of the responsibilities of contributing to societal justice resulting from the privilege of belonging to a highly skilled group of people. This chapter ends with a set of guiding core values for the supervisor–supervisee relationship.