Producing supervisors in the global south : reflections on academic training abroad

Abstract

In Ghana, a considerable proportion of academics have experiences of PhD training in the global north. This is often the result of higher educational capacity-building projects, which fund students’ scholarships as either a full stay or a number of stays in the funding country. Empirically, the article draws on seven narratives of academics with experiences of PhD training abroad now supervising at Universities in Ghana. Based on postcolonial perspectives on supervision, I explore how and in what forms experiences of academic training in the global north are present in the supervisors’ narratives of their supervision in the global south and what meaning and implications their experiences with supervision in the global north have for their current supervision practice. The article shows in what ways the academic practices of Ghanaian academics’ are influenced and related to their experiences abroad and mobility between the global north and global south. The article concludes that educational practice operates beyond the immediate supervision context, both in terms of supervision practice and in the wider cultural setting of supervision. As such, it adds to our knowledge of supervision in the postcolonial contact zone.