Toward an indigenized external supervision approach in China

Abstract

Today’s social work supervision is highly administration focused; however, the approach to supervision in Mainland China is unusual. According to a study conducted in Shenzhen, a special economic region in the Pearl River Delta, a dual supervision approach has been created. Consistent with recent empirical studies by international scholars, supervision can exist in many forms that best fit the needs of professional social workers. The findings in this study remind us to reattach importance to the educational functions of today’s social work supervision. The indigenized external supervision approach developed in Shenzhen can be used for reference in other cities in China.

The internal/external debate: The tensions within social work supervision

“…The participants described external supervision as more invested in the supervisory relationship and the social worker's development whereas internal supervision was about task completion. These descriptions aligned with internal supervision having an administrative focus (Kadushin & Harkness, 2014;O'Donoghue, 2015) and external supervision performing an educative function (Mo & Tsui, 2018) with external supervisors providing more constructive feedback and possessing greater practice knowledge and skills than internal supervisors (Itzhaky, 2001).…”

“…The challenge for social work supervision is to now resist the twin pressures to capitulate to the state and replace social work supervision with a watered-down management/administrative supervisory role, or to retreat into a psychological individualism that would restrict supervision functions to education and support. (p. 366) Supervision requires a critical re-positioning so that a balance of alternative supervision functions is achieved between administration and the social worker's professional development (Mo & Tsui, 2018;Noble & Irwin, 2009). The development of diverse types of supervision emphasise the changing needs of practice and organisations and where one type of supervision certainly does not fit all purposes (Beddoe, 2015).…”

“…External supervision takes place between a supervisor and practitioner who do not work for the same organisation and it occurs outside of the worker's normal place of work (Beddoe, 2012). External supervision has a focus on education and lifelong development (Mo & Tsui, 2018) that ensures the social worker's practice and objectives are met. The effectiveness of external supervision has assisted practitioners in child welfare to develop their knowledge base, ethics and values (Harvey & Henderson, 2014;Itzhaky, 2001;White, 2015).…”

“…Different types of supervision exist across different countries and are determined by particular socio-political influences. In Aotearoa New Zealand, a distinction has been made between internal and external supervision where social workers can access alternative sources and may have more than one supervisor (ANZASW, 2015; Mo & Tsui, 2018;O'Donoghue & Tsui, 2012) whereas Bradley and Höjer (2009) identified two separate types of supervision in social work child welfare agencies in England and Sweden and in South Africa (Bradley et al, 2010). The benefits of external supervision were identified as work-related and emotional support as well as a potentially positive impact for service users (Bradley & Höjer, 2009).…”

The historical development of knowledge in social work supervision: Finding new directions from the past

“…In the current decade, researchers took a slightly different approach by recognizing that social constructionism, culture, racism, gender, political context, ideologies, and professionalization had upon the theory and practice of supervision (O’Donoghue and Tsui, 2015). Factors such as managerialism, professional standards, and practice accountability have significantly affected the practice of social work supervision to the extent that supervision as the sole process for organizational learning is now in question and a multi-faceted approach to knowledge building that includes consultation, mentoring, and coaching is being advocated (Mo and Tsui, 2019).…”