The Function of Supervision

the function of supervision

Examining the different functions of supervision throws up various questions and issues. These questions include asking 'in whose interest does supervision work?' Confusion also arises concerning notions such as 'mentoring', 'practice teaching' and 'clinical supervision'. Here we explore Alfred Kadushin's model of supervision and the insights it brings to these questions.

contents: introduction • overseeing • kadushin's model of supervision • putting the functions together • 'non-managerial', 'consultative' or 'professional' supervision • supervision and the emergence of psychoanalysis and counselling • responsibilities to clients, other professionals and the community • a question of power • the college or training programme supervisor • mentoring and clinical supervision • conclusion • further reading and references • links • how to cite this article

The immediate roots of what we have come to know as supervision in the human services lie in the development of social work and casework. We see this, for example, in the concern for the needs of clients; and the taking up of ideas and practices that owe much to the emergence of psychoanalysis. However, to make sense of supervision it is necessary to look to the various forms of apprenticeship that have existed in different societies. In ancient China, Africa and Europe (feudal and otherwise), for example, there are numerous examples of people new to a craft or activity having to reveal their work to, and explore it with, masters or mistresses i.e. those recognized as skilled and wise. This process of being attached to an expert, of 'learning through doing' allows the novice to gain knowledge, skill and commitment. It also enables them to enter into a particular 'community of practice' such as tailoring or midwifery (see Lave and Wenger 1991). By spending time with practitioners, by 'looking over their shoulders', taking part in the routines and practices associated with the trade or activity, and having them explore our work, we become full members of the community of practice.

Overseeing

Supervision can be found in the growth of charitable social agencies in Europe and North America during the nineteenth century. It involved the recruitment, organization and oversight of a large number of volunteers and, later, paid workers. The volunteers were commonly known as 'visitors'. Their task was to call on a small number of families to offer advice and support. The main concern was to foster self help, and the adoption of 'healthy' habits and behaviours. In addition, visitors were also often in a position to access limited funds via their agencies, although such monies were only given after a careful investigation of the family's circumstances. In other words, a decision had to be made as to whether they were 'deserving'. (See, for example, the discussion of Maude Stanley, girls' clubs and district visiting and ellen ranyard, 'bible women' and informal education).

The person assigning cases, organizing work and taking decisions on behalf of the agency was basically an 'overseer' - and hence the growing use of the term 'supervisor'. (In Latin super means 'over', and vidêre, 'to watch, or see'). As Petes (1967: 170) has pointed out, traditionally, part of the overseer's job was to ensure that work was done well and to standard. This can be viewed as an administrative task. However, overseers also had to be teachers and innovators. These were new forms of organization and intervention: 'standards were being set, new methods developed' (op cit.).

In these early forms - and especially in the work of the Charity Organization Society in the USA and UK - the present functions and approaches of supervision were signalled. As thinking and practice around casework became more sophisticated, especially through the work of pioneers such as Mary Richmond (1899; 1917; 1922), and demands for more paid workers grew, so supervision became more of an identified process. For example, books on the subject began to appear - e.g. Jeffrey R. Brackett's Supervision and Education in Charity (1904).

Also, the hierarchical position of the supervisor (or paid agent) was revealed:

While the 'paid agent' acted as supervisor to the volunteer visitor, the paid agent 'supervisor' was himself supervised by the district committee, which had ultimate authority for case decisions... The paid agent supervisor was then in a middle-management position, as is true of supervisors today - supervising the direct service worker but themselves under the authority