Supervision as leadership in the combined practice-theoretical higher degree thesis

![CDATA[This paper explores how doctorates of philosophy involving a combination of practice and theory can be supervised to form a cohesive thesis through a form of leadership which encourages and develops scholarly thinking and writing at post-graduate level, engaging the student researcher to understand conceptual gateways which guide them to view their practice as a research paradigm, complementary to, and equally informative as, traditional texted research approaches. After a review of literature on styles of leadership which intersect with the supervisory role, the supervision of creative arts theses, and the notion of threshold concepts and conceptual gateways, the paper discusses five multi-modal doctorates, noting how the theory and practice were braided together to shape a cohesive argument. Underlying this is the experience of the researcher-practitioner as supervisor. Finally, there is discussion about the value of practice and other practice-based research approaches for doctoral research, implications for this supervisory leadership role, and how practice as research can be part of a mixed-method braided thesis study.]]