All if not most teachers do not have time to reflect on what bothers them - especially if it is behaviour which is disruptive. Counsellors and Social Workers have Supervision built into their work to deal with the emotional content. What do teachers do about the emotional content of behaviour which makes the job stressful. New head of Ofsted says "Have a sabbatical". In some special schools dealing with Social and Emotional difficulties the staff have eother one to one or group supervision - why not in mainstream education? Is there not the same levels of behaviour related stress there ? Anyone know of a group which networks about supervision in education.
I am not sure if the problem is the insufficient time to reflect, but probably there are not enough opportunities for teachers to come together in a non-threatening way and truly discuss about their challenges. (Anyone who has spent time in teachers' staff rooms knows that they seldom are places for emotionally safe reflecting upon your challenges -- positive exceptions do exist, but are rare in my experience -- regardless of the country.)
ReplyDeleteSupervision and support (or reflective practice/coaching/mentoring) are two very different things - at least to me. The first one is about evaluating employee performance, and thus carries a burden of using power over others, and making decisions about their competence, because that's what supervision is about, right? The latter one (support/reflective practice) is about helping teachers grow in their profession, but not making critical judgment about their job performance, and hence a better role for a job coach - whom I see as the person who would listen to teachers vent, and help them see the positive things in the classroom, before the burnout is approaching too fast.
Maybe I am just too simple person, but to me these different management functions unfold in a similar way as summative and formative assessments do: evaluating either process/growth, or performance. And I dislike evaluating performance, because I see the learning process (both in teachers and students) being more valuable because it constructs a brighter future, for both students and teachers.
The real problem, of course, is that most often times the supervisor and the coach must be the same person, due to the personnel policies. And the only way of dealing with that is to create such a transparent relationship with your teachers that they don't feel threatened by you, and always, ALWAYS make it very clear when you are doing coaching, and when your job function is something else.
My opinion: we need more knowledgeable and professional mentors/coaches/trainers for teachers. Everywhere. In every level of education. Because only then we can really improve the quality of education. Workshops / professional development effects wear out quite quickly when teachers return to their problematic classrooms. Sometimes a non-threatening coach (not supervisor, not someone to evaluate your performance!) can be a real eye-opener and help more than any other kind of support.