Reflections on the Implications of Globalization of Education for Research Supervision

In Pakistan the educational landscape is not homogeneous. There are enormous differences in skills, knowledge, and practices of the graduating students from different school systems. These differences tend to promote sub-cultures among students when they come to the institutions of higher learning. Initiation of these students into the ‘mono’ culture of the global community of researchers is an uphill task to be carried out by graduate research supervisors. The heartaches and rewards of this journey may simulate the experiences of a sojourner in foreign lands. In this reflection paper the perspectives of both supervisees (through interviews) and supervisors (through informal collegial discussion, personal experiences and observations) are taken for understanding the issues that facilitate and/ or hinder the initiation process. The findings imply the use of acculturation theories for understanding students’ experiences rather than conventional learning theories.