Supervised Teacher Development Groups - Super and Visionary to Whom and What?

Supervised teacher groups have increasingly become a new way to meet demands for professional development in Swedish schools. The general purpose is to engage small groups of teachers in guided ongoing dialogues about their work, although the activity takes different forms. The purpose of the current study is to examine what principals’, supervisors’ and teachers’ perspectives on supervised teacher groups as means for learning and development are. A pre-study (web survey) among Swedish principals (Åberg 2004) shows a great deal of interest in guided professional dialogues, and an overwhelming conviction that they are a valuable means for school development. The results raise some important questions: Why are principals so enthusiastic? What kind of development is supported in these groups? What are the potential outcomes? The results of the follow-up interview survey with principals show that even though no systematic evaluations have been carried out at schools regarding what development group supervision supports, principals experience a number of positive changes within several areas: development of professional language, reflection and increased ability to clarify and deal with work tasks, improved problem-solving ability without expert assistance, improved cooperation and increased personal certainty in the professional role. There are examples of group supervision where the aim has primarily been adaptation to one another and to the objectives of the organization. However, there are, more importantly, many examples of development-focused group learning, groups that have become stronger, that have begun to question existing orders, groups that begin to look for their own answers and solutions to a greater extent, that have received insight and increased resources for independent actions and that, aided by supervision, have been able to break out of destructive patterns and poorly functioning cooperation.