Professor Paul Gundani (Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology)

“The motive of this seminar is to build capacity and build mentorship, to nature our own in order to nature our postgraduate students. This will assist supervisors to learn the ropes on how well to supervise students and empower them to advance." These were the opening words of Professor Thinandavha  Mashua at the Postgraduate Supervisors seminar hosted by the Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology in the College of Human Sciences. The department is using collaborative research to ensure students receive guidance on their research work, which will enable them to complete their studies successfully.

Professor Paul Gundani led the seminar with the aim of covering critical elements within research such as framework, methodologies, literature reviews, research topics and ethical clearance. He highlighted the first important thing is for a student is to come up with a viable topic which is backed up by immense reading. He further explained that reading would provide the student with better understanding and clarification on the topic of their choice and they must be able to master key concepts in the discipline with the guidance of their supervisor.

“There must be a problem to research in a topic, or else you are the problem. The topic must be wide enough to take in scope; it is important that the topic is properly worded and clearly situated within the discipline.”

He said at doctorate level, students cannot have studies that are descriptive and explorative; these studies can be done with Masters and Honors, the study must rather be participatory. Methods and methodologies are two different concepts, methodology is a philosophical narrative and methods are about how students get to the destination without inconvenience.

The value and ethic of research is dependent on research integrity, the students research must be trustworthy. He encouraged supervisors to encourage students to understand their academic journeys must have a beginning and an end, the students must anticipate the end. Their studies should not be prolonged unnecessarily because of the lack of anticipation within themselves.

He ended his presentation by stating: “The dissertation or thesis is not about the supervisor, it is rather about the students. Whether the supervisor disagrees with the topic as long as the research is within the discipline, the supervisors cannot hinder the student from pursuing the research.”

*By Nomshado Lubisi (CHS communications and marketing)