An investigation of factors involved when educational psychologists supervise other professionals

• Main Author: Callicott, Katherine Margaret
• Published: University of Birmingham 2011
• Subjects: 370.15; LB Theory and practice of education
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.556854

This research explores inter-professional supervision involving an educational psychologist supervising another professional and complements the recent guidelines on professional supervision produced by The Division of Educational and Child Psychology (DECP) (Dunsmuir and Leadbetter, 2010). The factors explored were purposes and boundaries of supervision; models of supervision; skills of the supervisor, including those that are distinctive to the profession of educational psychology; benefits and problems associated with supervision including the process of evaluation and ethical and legal issues pertaining to supervision. An interpretative epistemological stance was adopted. Ten semi-structured interviews were carried out with educational psychologists (supervisors) and other professionals (supervisees) recruited through purposive sampling. Interviews were transcribed orthographically and coded using thematic analysis. Findings suggest that inter-professional supervision was viewed positively. Supervision skills were recognised as a necessary pre-requisite but not necessarily distinctive to the profession of educational psychology. This research highlights the conflicting conceptualisations of supervision and the importance of contracting for increasing understanding of the supervision process, alerting stakeholders to important ethical and legal implications, and reconciling differences in expectations concerning the aims and functions of supervision.