A delicate balance: The interplay of supervision, academic context, motivation, and emotions in doctoral education

Doctoral education may be experienced as a transformative process through which PhD candidates progressively develop and come to be recognised as autonomous researchers. Supervision relationships can be spaces for the development of autonomy; however, supervisors’ support may be complex and multidimensional, drawing on constant struggles for balance. Drawing on a perspectivist approach and adopting a mixed-methods design, this study explored the interplay between the supervisory relationship, the academic/research context, motivation and emotions in doctoral education. Results asserted the developmental and holistic nature of PhD candidates’ autonomy. PhD candidates who reported receiving higher task-focused and autonomy-focused supportive supervision within inclusive, learning-oriented contexts were highly motivated and reported more positive emotional outcomes. Results emphasise a delicate balance between different levels of autonomy and (in)dependence, the need to balance various aspects of supervisory support, underscore supervision’s pedagogical role, and position emotional well-being as an ethical responsibility and a central outcome of doctoral education.