Pedagogical supervision in Italy: a system for professional support and growth

Currently, the question of lifelong learning for professionals is increasingly at the center of the debate and policy agendas of many European countries. Work organizations and companies are also placing more importance on lifelong learning’s competencies, because market demands and needs change continuously and very quickly. Particularly, in the educational setting the level of complexity and mutability is very high, educational needs tend to multiply and \»»new educational poverty\»» emerges. These phenomena expose professionals to the risk of being overwhelmed by the workload. Furthermore, practitioners may perceive a lack of strategies and skills to respond appropriately. In addition, there are other risks associated with this profession, such as work-related stress; burnout; emotional exhaustion and high turnover rates. This paper proposes and discusses the practice of pedagogical supervision as a tool for the support and continuing training of educational professionals. Moreover, the aim is to provide an overview of the state of art of the pedagogical supervision system in Italy. Pedagogical supervision is a complex consulting practice that involves an experienced supervisor and a professional or group of educational professionals in a process of lifelong and transformative learning.This contribution summarizes the origin and history of pedagogical supervision; exposes the main models of supervision; describes the main differences between supervision and other similar interventions such as training, counseling and coordination. In addition, it presents the different types and functions of supervision: administrative supervision; supportive supervision; formative/educational/developmental supervision. In Italy, supervision practice emerged in the social service field. Supervisors in social service monitor the work of new employees to maintain the quality of their intervention and teach the most effective strategies and practices. Therefore, while most research focuses on supervision practice in social work, studies in social-educational contexts is less common. For that reason, this theoretical contribution highlights the value and benefits of pedagogical supervision in social-educational contexts: facilitate the search for meaning in educational actions; support the professionals in the emotional aspects of practice; transforme experience into pedagogical learning and knowledge; connect theory and practice. This supportive tool builds pedagogical knowledge and practice, with the consequent empowerment of the educator professional identity. This figure recently has received an Italian reference legislation, but it is still poorly recognized, paid and valued within the Italian pedagogical culture. In conclusion, this contribution aims to facilitate the empowerment of educational professionals and the dissemination of supervision practice in educational contexts. Pedagogical supervision should be considered an essential tool for professional development, lifelong learning, and the well-being of educational professionals. Future developments could investigate through empirical research the impact of pedagogical supervision on the well-being and professional development of educational professionals. The literature, in other fields and sectors, has repeatedly demonstrated the negative relationship between supervision and some detrimental outcomes such as stress, burnout, staff turnover. Also, other studies show the positive relationship between supervision and some beneficial outcomes such as job satisfaction, perception of job support and self-efficacy beliefs. From these findings, we begin to investigate the existence and strength of these relationships in social-educational contexts too.