Development of the Sisonke Supervision MentoringProgramme

Abstract

In this paper we map new ways of supporting and capacitating novice supervisors. During the COVID 19 pandemic, we hosted weekly online collaborative workshops designed to reflect on a process of common learning, in which established and novice supervisors engaged with and discussed their individual supervisory needs. This process revealed, with particular clarity, the complexities of mentoring supervisors at a University of Technology (UoT) and enabled the development of the Sisonke Supervision Mentoring Programme (SSMP). This new identification of key aspects offers insight and benefit to similar programmes. The Community of Practice (CoP) theory was appropriate for this context since it allowed the construction of mentoring spaces in which people could engage mutually in activities to improve their supervisory practices. Using an interpretivist paradigm and inductively and qualitatively analysing transcripts revealed four key subjects for discussion: learning should be non-hierarchical; collaboration and reflection take place in in CoPs; care rather than competition should be paramount; and mentorship supervision is a joint responsibility.