All real classrooms are saturated in the fictional narratives about education from TV and movies that swirl about thickly and persistently in western culture, yet the influence that these fictions exert on real teachers and real students is seldom examined. This article argues that since these fictional narratives nearly always deal in recycled stereotypes of both students and teachers, and that since these stereotypes are both ubiquitous and compelling, and that since they seldom receive critical attention, the influence they exert (...) on real teachers and real students is to mislead, confuse, and impoverish their evaluations of and expectations about the nature of genuine education. (shrink)

Hegel's master and slave is a significant archetype for graduate research supervision. The master—slave relation vividly exemplifies the hierarchical bond that ties supervisor and student together. Such a confronting view of supervision provides a counterbalance to contemporary emphases on equality between supervisor and student. In what follows, I use Zali Gurevitch's interpretation of Hegel's master and slave to analyse an extract of supervision dialogue between a supervisor and a Masters student in the Humanities. My analysis shows the mundaneness of the (...) master—slave relation in action. This mundaneness derives from supervision's institutional underpinnings and contributes to the relative invisibility of the master—slave relation as an influential dynamic. In closing, I argue that this investigation usefully draws our attention to the third player in supervision, the thesis, and that master—slave dynamics may have both disturbing and helpful effects for supervisor and student. (shrink)