Supervisors in the context of teacher education: constraints and challenges

Abstract

Linked to a broader study on Supervision, this text analyzes the perceptions of professional supervisors in teacher training courses at a higher education public institution in Portugal. The data, resulting from interviews, were subjected to content analysis, highlighting as main results: Constraints linked to lack of knowledge about contexts, subjects and practices; schedule reconciliation; diversity of perceptions of the role attributed to the institution, the student-trainee, the school and the cooperating teacher; lack of professionalization of the supervising teacher and experience in basic education; work overload of cooperating teachers and supervisors; Supervisor’s role as recognizing, valuing and integrating different dimensions, knowledge and actors that are part of the supervisory practice; Supervisor’s skill to monitor the process of observation and intervention of student-interns, mobilizing different skills, putting themselves in a permanent training process, creating learning opportunities among student-interns, cooperating teachers and supervisors of the higher education institution; Challenges such as maintaining a relationship of trust, capable of creating, sharing, listening, co-construction and committed reflection with interventions that transform established and instituting practices. Despite the afore mentioned results, supervisors value the role of Supervision in initial teacher education, as a space for building knowledge for everyone involved.