Abstract
This study investigates how technology-assisted doctoral supervision in teacher education can improve the quality of the supervision process in Cameroon. It is an exploratory sequential mixed method which involves an initial qualitative phase with PhD students followed by a quantitative phase with PhD supervisors. The study was situated in the Affordances Theory mooted by Gibson (1979), which explains how technological affordances can support the supervisory process. The snowball sampling technique was used to select n=80 PhD students using nine focus group discussions and n=210 doctoral supervisors who responded to the questionnaire. The qualitative data was discussed using the thematic-content method. In contrast, the quantitative data was analysed using the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 25.0, frequency counts and percentages and Pearson parametric test. Findings showed a significant positive relationship between ICT tools and doctoral supervision output. Also, the non-use of ICT tools was found to have a slightly negative effect on doctoral supervision. While the use of ICTs by supervisors and PhD supervisees was evident, it was mostly limited to phone calls and WhatsApp due to adequate skills in ICT. With globalisation, crisis and pandemic issues, technology is relevant to improving doctoral supervision. Therefore, it is recommended that technology be included in postgraduate pedagogy and teacher education to improve doctoral supervision. A similar research can be carried out in other universities in Cameroon and developing economies to corroborate the findings. A comparative analysis is relevant to generalisation and improvement in doctoral supervision.
Keywords: Doctoral education, Supervision, Higher Education, Technology
The manuscript was submitted to the South African Journal of Higher Education. | This article was made possible by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York under the Future Africa Research Leadership Fellowship, University of Pretoria, South Africa. Special thanks also go to the administration of the home institution, the University of Buea, Cameroon, for such vast collaboration in the real world that is required to be realised.
