The making of a professional academic: an analysis of Swedish doctoral supervision policy

摘要

The general aim of this article is to develop an understanding of the historical and contemporary frames for professional socialisation through doctoral supervision. Supervision is a crucial component of doctoral education, in the reproduction of future researchers and a research competent labour force. Special attention is directed towards Swedish doctoral supervision policy. Sweden shares the characteristics of a social democratic type of welfare regime in which national politics takes a special responsibility for and interest in higher education including doctoral education. In government policy texts providing the basis for two major reforms of doctoral education, in 1969 and 1998, we map and analyse what is expressed about supervision and its context, and how this is expressed, paying attention to both similarities and differences. Drawing on a governance perspective, including a critical policy analysis, we discuss the findings in terms of frames for the professional socialisation of doctoral students. In both reforms, we recognise a dominant supervision ideal which emphasises efficiency, but it is complemented and partly challenged by very different ideals: in 1969 by an academic ideal and in 1998 by an ideal promoting good doctoral working conditions. Altogether, this implies a shift in the framing of professional socialisation from emphasising efficiency as a matter of compliance to efficiency as a matter of interaction and cooperation.