'O' for osmosis, 'P' for pedagogy: fixing the postgraduate wheel of fortune

This paper focuses on pedagogy as a crucial element in postgraduate research undertakings, implying active involvement of both student and supervisor in a process of teaching and learning. It takes issue with the reliance on osmosis as the dominant practice of supervision of postgraduate research studies and suggests a model of pedagogy as intentional and systematic intervention, based on literature deriving from research in primary and secondary schooling which acknowledges the problematic natures of relationships between teaching, learning and knowledge production. In doing so, it examines issues of discursive practice and the problematic nature of power differentials in supervisor/supervisee relationships and the possibilities presented by a number of alternative models for such relationships.