Promoting Effective Doctoral Supervision through Relational Pedagogy: The Supervisor as Shepherd and Counsellor in Doctoral Education

This paper examines relational pedagogy as an effective approach to promoting success in doctoral supervision. The author reflects on his relationship with his thesis supervisor and advocates for teachers and supervisors to consider ways in which relational pedagogy may become a key element and approach in doctoral supervision and education. It reveals how his doctoral supervisor cultivated a trusted shepherd-counsellor relationship that led to the expected outcomes. The study proposes that promoting shepherding and counselling roles in doctoral supervision is a supportive way to foster such rapport for successful candidature. The paper positions dialogue as a vital element of relational pedagogy. It sees the need for supervisors and higher educational institutions to adopt shepherding-counselling roles to provide students with the right assistance to become successful in their doctoral journey.

through meaningful social interactions and well-considered instructional approaches. 3It is a way of managing supervisor-candidate roles to facilitate the doctoral journey to achieve meaningful outcomes.
According to Katherine Fulgence Swai, doctoral education is "a process through which knowledge is acquired…knowledge is generated" and transmitted to other knowledge seekers. 4As educators pursue the transmission of information, the impartation of knowledge, and the promotion of skills training for impactful service, it is significant that they go about this, not just as conveyors of only thoughts and views.Supervision that is done with a sense of feeling as dealing with people whose needs and lives extend beyond the routine of merely reading, providing feedback and the occasional meeting with the student, is rewarding.
The author features how the vital components of relational pedagogy (dialogue, counselling and shepherding) intersect with the supervisor to promote effective supervision for impactful doctoral education.Narrating specific experiences in his doctoral journey, he reflects on the transforming supervisor-student relationship with his supervisor and sees the need for supervisors, mentors, educators, and Higher Education Providers (HEP) to foreground relational pedagogy and to assume shepherding-counselling roles to provide students with the right support to earn their doctorates.The paper uses education and training, doctoral candidate and student interchangeably. 5

A Particular Journey
Owler refers to the PhD as a candidate's personal "journey of exploration." 6The author's doctoral journey concluded in 2016 at the Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture (ACI), Ghana, where he spent years investigating the role of the indigenous language in the establishment and expansion of Christianity in Sierra Leone, particularly focusing on the pioneer missionary Hannah Kilham.It all started with an admission letter and scholarship from the venerable Ghanaian theologian, the Late Professor Kwame Bediako. 7he ensuing years of study at ACI were full of motley experiencessome pleasant moments as well as challenging times, but they enabled him to discover how a supervisor's use of relational pedagogy significantly contributed to altering what he refers to as a disengaged teacher-student relationship.
Progress with the author's PhD research work had stalled for some time due to health reasons on the part of the primary supervisor, Professor Andrew Walls, so Professor Allison Howell was appointed to that role.He had only interacted with her in the lecture room and on official matters.This next period of engagement with her enabled him to see other empathetic attributes veiled behind the image of a stern, disciplined and officious lecturer. 8The author's PhD viva voce was delayed for some time, but it finally took place very close to the graduation date.After his defence, Professor Howell invited him to her office to read the examiners'  Goody, vol.39 (Australia: Herdsa, 2016), https://www.herdsa.org.au/publications/conferenceproceedings/research-and-development-higher-education-shape-higher-23.

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The Late Professor Kwame Bediako was founder and first Rector of the erstwhile Akrofi-Christaller Memorial Centre (ACMC), now ACI.He had passed on before the author commenced my Master of Theology (MTh.)degree programme in 2009 on my way to pursue a PhD. 8 The author recounts a number of selfless endeavours on the part of his supervisor including, spending a good part of her night to digitise a document he badly needed for his research work and also, purchasing a set of relevant books and allowing him to use them until he had completed his studies.reports and recommendations.Two of the reports were very good but the third required major changes in the thesis.After reading the report, he then narrated how a dream he had had predicted the outcome of his examination, but another crucial event overtook both of them.Prof. Howell became critically ill and required emergency surgery.She was mostly unavailable for the next three months.Although the author missed graduating that year, he was able to complete the corrections to graduate the following year.The shepherd-counsellor role she cultivated through a dialogical approach transformed the disconnected student-teacher relationship into a liberating one of trust and care of a supervisor.In a way, this endorses Nodding's view on the need to reposition theory and foreground the need for a caring and relational attitude with the learner in educational systems. 9

Doctoral Supervision and Relational Pedagogy
Swai observes that recent publications are replete with student-supervisor relationships. 10Supervision, as a component of education, is relational in nature.It is the activities of providing leadership in the doctoral process as they relate to students' pursuit of their PhD.This process of teaching and supervising and the principles that guide it constitute what is referred to as pedagogy.Bishop and Starkey see pedagogy as "the profession, art, and science of teaching". 11Although the root word "pedagogue," has acquired less professional and objectionable nuances such as pedantry and dogmatism, its origin in the Greek, paidagogus, refers to a boy's tutor; and it carries the idea of an agent of learning, one who looks after, attends to, escorts, or leads a child to school. 12edagogy has the potential to greatly influence supervisor-doctoral candidate relationships in ways that articulate the meaning of doctoral education for the student.Doctoral education thrives through the relationship with those in academia.Knowledge acquisition as a social construct is represented by various paradigms including, mutuality and dialogue, according to Thayer-Bacon, who asserts that "we become knowers and are able to contribute to the constructing of knowledge due to the relationships we have with others." 13This knowledge and social dimensions form the core of a supervisor's work.
Relational pedagogy, therefore, focuses on the importance of relationships that are created in the learning environment.Relationship in education refers to the positive connections and interconnections between students, teachers, supervisors, and other members of the learning community that "foster positive social interaction and establish a nurturing environment of trust and support". 14Two basic forms of relationships: student-student and supervisor-student exist in this context, but the focus is on the latter as pivotal in the doctorate endeavour.
A growing number of research works in pedagogy speak in support of a genuine, trusting teacher-student relationship as a fundamental element in the education process. 15They observe that a trusting relationship explains several positive outcomes in students, including their empowerment, adjustment to education, academic performance, individual initiative and engagement with studies, empathy and cooperation in the teaching-learning environment and process.The converse may result in "increased levels of anxiety and depression" and demotivation in students. 16This inter-human phenomenon connects and influences other levels of relations in the social web in which the student participates.Supervisors' expected outcomes have also been observed to increase with positive supervisor-student relationships. 17This is why Crownover and Jones describe relational pedagogy as "the systematic construction of appropriate relationships embedded within the schooling [education] process." 18This involves a deliberate effort to not only build but also, to maintain relationships in ways that aid the supervising process to realise the transformative goal of doctoral training.Since relational Pedagogy promotes a shared "relational commitment" among all those involved in the learning community, it does not place value on students based on a form of gradation.Worth and respect are premised based on a common humanity and a common cause.Reflecting on his PhD studies, he sees his supervisor's attempt at outlining the steps on how to overcome major hurdles in the doctoral programmewith an unbiased position on quality assurance issuesas a commitment to this ideal.
Supervisors wield a lot of power and inappropriate exercise of this influence may result in the abuse of students.Frick also opines that supervisors' inappropriate use of power "may hamper students' development of scholarly independence, calculated risk-taking and creativity." 19upervisors' ignorance or disregard of these negative consequences makes the academic environment a place that promotes oppression. 20One way to prevent this and foster healthy conditions for growth is for supervisors to initiate dialogue with students.

Dialogue in Relational Pedagogy and Doctoral Education
Doctoral education is dialogical in its accommodation of reasoning and encouragement of students to consider alternative viewpoints and interpretations.In basic terms, dialogue is a conversation between parties or entities.It is a situation in which one person seeks to understand another person through communication by expressing his or her opinion while trying also to fit the other person's view into his or her own.This encourages what Richard Paul describes as cooperative learning -a situation where learners learn by reasoning together with others, drawing from each other's thinking, suggestions or proposals and analyses, and finding insights to problems and issues, and implications that may arise. 21ialogue becomes dialectical when it involves "extended exchange between different points of view or frames of reference" and analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of the various perspectives to arrive at a conclusion. 22As Paul argues, dialogue translates into dialectics when viewpoints vary in the conversation and require assessment of positions. 23The assumption here is that knowledge acquisition and its application to situations is a goal of true education.It requires the student's active participation, investigation and analysis of issues and formation of positions, and application of the knowledge gained.
In other words, doctoral education does not entertain acceptance of absolute judgments without subjecting them to the scrutiny of reason.It is the commitment to develop in students this quality of thought processing and that sets Prof. Howell apart and distinguishes her from some other doctoral educators -those who equate education with "gathering content and a body of information"; who treat students "as boxes to be filled gradually with logically arranged packets of information" without scrutiny. 24n George Hillock's assessment, teachers' effectiveness correlated with their belief that their students' work will improve.He argues that: Teachers [supervisors]…who are not optimistic about their students will have no reason to change.Because [these supervisors] so seldom engage in reflective practice, they will have little evidence of any need to change.And because they have low expectations of their students, they will not be surprised when their students fail to learn. 25e significant way in which the author's supervisor facilitated his cultivation of certain attributes and enquiring mind was through her role as shepherd and counsellor.Impacting relational pedagogy creates a dialogical connection between the roles of shepherd, counsellor and doctoral educator.

Shepherding and Counselling Roles of a Doctoral Supervisor
An effective and efficient supervisor combines the roles of pastor and counsellor to facilitate the achievement of their own objectives and the goals of their students.As teachers, supervisors initiate dialogue with students to support them identify their individual goals and intentionally guide them to achieve the desired changes in their lives.In doing this, supervisors assume some shepherding and counselling functions in fulfilling their varied roles.Nkechi et al. have observed that "counsellors…proffer guidance to the [student] in a quest of moulding the [student] in the right path to take in their life pursuit." 26he author recalls how this became apparent to him in a meeting with his supervisor after his defence.They were revisiting and addressing comments of one of his two external examiners, who had requested a revision of the term 'Native' to 'Indigenous'.Noticing his insistence and reluctance to revise the expression, Prof. Howell restated the examiner's requirement and then enquired from him, whether he wanted to complete that revision and move on with life.Of course, he desired to open a new chapter in his life so he accepted to revise 'Native' to 'Indigenous' and proceeded to conclude his PhD journey.Soundararajan sees the counsellor's objective precisely in this regard, …to provide support to clients' goals by assisting in decreasing their stress, aiding the effort to provide a healthy environment, and helping them focus on personal and career goals, thereby contributing to their clients' motivation, performance, and satisfaction with their life. 27ai captures this in her summary of qualities and attributes expected of good supervisors -"professional guide", "a flexible personal guide", "a career guide", etc. 28 Successful counsellors do not only put themselves in clients' shoes but, after listening and understanding, they also facilitate clients' development of a better understanding of themselves and their respective situation to arrive at "a realistic, practical solution". 29This responsibility interconnects with shepherding.Anthony Yeo sees it as "a shared ministry" and as such, this task also falls to other members of the academic community. 30 healthy Shepherd-Counsellor relationship rests upon trust.Frick outlines the meaning of trust thus: A belief of truthfulness, and reliability or faith in another person's ability; A form of power; Taking a risk by confiding in the new and unknown, a critical element of knowledge creation; Making the decision to act with others in spite of uncertainty, which is vital for independence; Placing yourself in a position of vulnerability, and giving up power, in anticipation of reciprocity…[that] enables voice, resilience and creativity in teams." 31e true shepherd-counsellor has a strong relational capacity that enables them to "relate to a student's actual person and potential existence." 32This capacity, however, thrives on reciprocal trust in the shepherd-counsellee relationship and resonates with the notion of mutuality in counselling.David Shapiro del Sole explains the beneficial aspect of mutuality in counselling.He says that "mutuality is not about you and me.It is simultaneously about Us.The Us of this moment is engaged in speaking and listening at the same time…One can think of it as Us speaking to you and me.And of course, Us is also listening to you and me." 33The author recounts moments during his doctoral thesis revision when he felt that he and his supervisor were now more at ease with each other to relate as friends.They had a sense of mutual understanding, acceptance and support.They felt comfortable sharing prayer needs, and testimonies and sometimes praying for each other at the end of the revision meetings.Encouraging emails and telephone calls were also not unusual during that period, and these continued for a while even after his graduation.
Joseph R Jones and Sharon Murphy Augustine have observed that "knowledge about one's own students raises awareness of the [education-related problems]" that they go through.Awareness then becomes a significant first step in addressing students' challenges and is "best attained by developing quality [supervisor]-student relationships." 34Howell fulfilled these changing roles as a good supervisor "who helps the student to learn." 35

CONCLUSION
Relational pedagogy is favourable to doctoral education.Its benefits to the educational process and community are far-reaching.Supervising doctoral students using this approach is productive and commendable.Prof. Allison Howell's adoption of this path and its positive effect on the author's educational outcomes highlight the need for agents of doctoral education to factor the place of dialogue, shepherding-counselling into the relational pedagogy equation.The emphasis should be on human qualities and individual potential.This becomes evident as supervisors pay attention to each student's [sheep's] needs and guide the student to meet those needs in positive ways.Differences in background and potential of doctoral students, therefore, make supervising in doctoral education part of an unceasing process of learning and unlearning approaches in the life of a doctoral supervisor.The author therefore recommendsthat supervisors' preparatory and refresher programmes should consider relational pedagogy when training them and deliberate workshops and courses such as the CREST