Educational Psychologists Experience of Taking Part in Group Supervision: A Phenomenological Study

This study offers an insight into eight educational psychologists’ (EPs) experiences of being supervised in a group. Two males, six females (aged between 29 and 64), working as EPs in one of two local authorities in England took part in semi-structured interviews. Their experience as EPs ranged from one year to 36 however they all had a minimum of one year of experience of group supervision.
Transcripts of the interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), a qualitative methodology. Researchers using IPA are interested in the individual and see those individuals as experts in their own experience.
In a model by Hawkins and Shohet (2006) commonly known as the ‘Seven Eyed Model of Supervision’, a multi layered approach to supervision is suggested. This dovetails with Adair’s (1986) Functional Management Approach of effective groups which talks of groups needing to attend to the individual, group and task needs in unison. These models are at the heart of this study which found that the experience of EPs in group supervision can also be considered as a three layered experience where the PURPOSE, PROCESS and PERSONAL NEEDS, the three Ps of group supervision, are simultaneously interacting.
This thesis was produced at a time where, once again, educational psychologists were faced with huge changes in the education system. I anticipate that group supervision across the children’s workforce will become an area of rapid growth and educational psychologists are well placed to be at the heart of this growth. However for this to happen we need to ensure that group supervision is not misunderstood and, therefore, the findings of this study offer a unique opportunity in understanding what it feels like to be supervised in a group.