Supervision of students in social care education: practice teachers’ views of their role

What is it about?

This research explores how practice teachers or field supervisors in social care education view their role. From interviews with twenty practice teachers the analysis showed two viewpoints. Participants holding the first viewpoint emphasised the importance of clients of social care agencies and the policies of the agencies. Thus it is the role of the practice teacher to help students appreciate the individuality of clients and that clients' value systems can be different to their own so they can learn client-centred practice. Knowing and following policies are important for the student as the agency's ethos and way of practising is embedded in these and they are there to protect clients, staff and students. Practice teachers holding this viewpoint also saw their role to be to support the students as the work is challenging but to ensure the student took responsibility for their own practice. Participants who held the second viewpoint saw their role as helping students reflect on themselves, how they practised and relevant theoretical frameworks underpinning practice. They also saw helping the student to make links between theory and practice as an important part of their role.

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Why is it important?

The role of the practice teacher is broad and complex. This research documents that practice teachers took one of two positions in relation to this role and explains the behaviours they said they engaged in.