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Problems with supervisor

S

Hi everyone,

I'm interested in how other people might handle this situation. I would change supervisors if I could identify a good replacement and project, but at the moment that seems unlikely.
My supervisor told me recently that the reason the director of a field site won't answer my emails is because he is 'suspicious' of me, and not prepared to lift a finger to help me until I submit him a research plan in writing. She seemed to think this was fair on his part. Why haven't I submitted a plan in writing yet? Basically two reasons: my original project plan, approved by my funding body, stated the first year of my project would focus on data analysis. Field work was going to come after that, and although we were talking about some ideas there was no indication from her that the original time frame should change or I should be contacting this guy at a certain point. Then, she was actively discouraging me from going to this field site, highlighting problems etc and trying to get me to go to another one. It's clear, both from things that happened before and her latest comments, that she has encouraged him to be 'suspicious'. There is slightly more to it, but those are key.
This aside, quite a few times she has jumped to conclusions about me and what I've done that consist of her interpreting me in the worst possible way. They are too long to describe here. I pointed out a couple to her where she was clearly wrong. I tried to explain the field site situation from my perspective once but she wouldn't listen.
Despite what i've said, our relationship isn't all bad. Should I hang on in the hope things will get better? Should I change? My current thought is some kind of middle ground where we discuss all this stuff with grad school support, but I'm not sure that won't backfire.

Does anyone have any similar experiences of resolving such issues?
Thanks
Selkie

P

Quote From Selkie:
Hi everyone,

I'm interested in how other people might handle this situation. I would change supervisors if I could identify a good replacement and project, but at the moment that seems unlikely.
My supervisor told me recently that the reason the director of a field site won't answer my emails is because he is 'suspicious' of me, and not prepared to lift a finger to help me until I submit him a research plan in writing. She seemed to think this was fair on his part. Why haven't I submitted a plan in writing yet? Basically two reasons: my original project plan, approved by my funding body, stated the first year of my project would focus on data analysis. Field work was going to come after that, and although we were talking about some ideas there was no indication from her that the original time frame should change or I should be contacting this guy at a certain point. Then, she was actively discouraging me from going to this field site, highlighting problems etc and trying to get me to go to another one. It's clear, both from things that happened before and her latest comments, that she has encouraged him to be 'suspicious'. There is slightly more to it, but those are key.
This aside, quite a few times she has jumped to conclusions about me and what I've done that consist of her interpreting me in the worst possible way. They are too long to describe here. I pointed out a couple to her where she was clearly wrong. I tried to explain the field site situation from my perspective once but she wouldn't listen.
Despite what i've said, our relationship isn't all bad. Should I hang on in the hope things will get better? Should I change? My current thought is some kind of middle ground where we discuss all this stuff with grad school support, but I'm not sure that won't backfire.

Does anyone have any similar experiences of resolving such issues?
Thanks
Selkie


Is there a reason why you won't either complete the research plan or listen to your supervisor and go to the other site.
Nothing in what you have posted makes it "clear" that your supervisor has encouraged anyone to be "suspicious" of you.
It sounds to me that you are being overly defensive. Your comment "I pointed out a couple to her where she was clearly wrong" is a red flag for me of a potential attitude problem on your part.

Either way I am not sure about involving grad school support. It feels like you are not giving out the full story here. Certainly not enough of a story to warrant advising getting grad support involved. That would almost certainly not end well for you and it should be a last resort.

Hi Selkie, when you said that your supervisor said that the field site director was 'suspicious' and wouldn't do anything with out a written research plan, I'm wondering whether you are reading this as a personal comment rather than a general one.

By this I mean that many people in the field are suspicious of researchers-mainly perhaps because they are busy and accommodating researchers and participating in field studies can be time consuming and a distraction for the people actually working in the field.

Often a site may receive many requests for participants to complete surveys, be observed, have reports written about them and they are naturally suspicious of the process and went some form of control over the whole thing. Thus, any director will want a plan that outlines the parameters of the study and the ethical approvals before they even consider having a researcher come on site and start their research. They will also want to know how it is being published and whether they will need some form of control over what is being said or who gets to hear it.

It isn't always personal though, just a natural defensiveness of their territory and thus the request for a plan or outline of the purpose, how data will be collected, the timeline, and the privacy concerns, so they have an idea of what is happening.

Your supervisor may also know of issues in this site already that she can't disclose to you which may be why she is discouraging you from approaching this particular site and trying to direct you to another.

I have found that supervisors are people and like all people you get to know really well, there are great aspects to their personality (or usually there are-sometimes you get a really difficult supervisor) and there are things that don't gel with one and as you become more familiar, get under your skin. Supervisors would have similar issues with their students-so on the balance of things, how is your overall relationship with your supervisor and do you generally get on and make overall progress. Weighing up this against individual issues of contention might help with your decision.

A

Quote From Pjlu:
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I agree with everything Pjlu has said. Regardless of your discipline, you cannot go straight into the field and start collecting data of any kind until you have a firm research proposal and plan, and ethics approval. In some cases, you have to get ethics approval not just from your university, but also from any involved organisations if they have an ethics process.

I'm also a little confused as to why you would have data analysis in the first year of study? Again, not sure of your field, but my understanding is that the first year would be literature review and finalising your research plan? Wouldn't your data analysis come from your fieldwork?

I agree with your supervisor regarding the director. He needs to see a well-thought out and detailed research plan before he should assist you in any kind. As Pjlu said, he needs to have a clear idea about your intentions and motivations with the research and your plan for the data, as well as where you might publish. This is a common practice with any kind of research that requires the assistance of an external organisation.

A good way to think about it is like a business loan. You don't just go in asking for money, you go in with a strong business plan that makes your case. You need to do the same with research.

S

Thanks for the responses. I seem to have failed to make the situation clear.
I never expected to be allowed to go into the field without a research plan, and that's not my complaint at all. I'm not whining about being asked to provide one.
The data analysis was examining related data (as well as a lit review) before going to the field and collecting more data to analyse.
I've actually already spoken to the grad school and my funding body who were both sympathetic to the situation.

T

I don't fully understand the issue. Why do you think your supervisor is acting this way? It is in the supervisor's interest that the student is successful. Just trying to understand better. If the situation isn't going anywhere then maybe changing supervisors will be the solution. But first there may be other things you can try - such as meeting your advisor (do you have one?), diplomatically explaining your perception of the situation, and getting their take on it and advice. They may then speak directly to your supervisor if needed.

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