This study is an investigation of the relationship between the cultural competency of counselor supervisors and the satisfaction with supervision of their supervisees. This study is a quantitative analysis of the correlations between the variables of cultural competency, satisfaction with supervision, and supervisee ethnicity and supervisee gender. The chapters of this dissertation present an introduction to the study, a review of the relevant and related literature, and the research methodology that was utilized to conduct the study, together with results and discussions.

The problem is four-fold: To determine the status of Kentucky city school superintendents with reference to professional training, educational experience and tenure. To determine the facts regarding the financial compensation and economic status of Kentucky city school superintendents To determine the social and professional status as shown by the activities in which the superintendents engage. To determine the status of the city superintendents with reference to powers and duties.

Past research has shown that learner-centered environments can improve students' self-esteem and increase their academic skills. The purpose of this study was to determine whether teaching the core curriculum within a caring classroom environment increases students ability to communicate effectively and perform at higher achievement levels in writing. The study addressed the experiences of teachers in implementing a new writing program with a strong emphasis on social skill development as a precursor to good writing. Guided by the social learning theories of Dewey, Rogers, and Vygotsky, who contended that social interaction is vital to the development of cognition, a qualitative case study was undertaken consisting of individual interviews with 15 teachers at 6 elementary schools in southwestern Connecticut. Data were collected to address the extent to which a caring community of students can foster positive academic outcomes. Data were analyzed and coded to discover common themes. Results showed that teachers perceived that the social skills taught through the program did increase students writing skills. In addition, students had better listening skills and were more comfortable taking academic risks. This finding supports past social learning theories. Based on these findings, 3 days of professional learning workshops were created with the goals of building student-teacher relationships, creating learner-centered environments, and curtailing bullying. Equipping teachers with this resource will help to create social change by helping students become better communicators in a diverse society, increasing their graduation rates, and preparing them to enter the global workforce of the 21st century.

Public schools are facing a leadership crisis regarding the lack of women superintendents in the United States. Although, historically, women have dominated the positions of classroom teachers and outnumbered men in receiving administrative leadership certificates, there is a disproportion in the number of men and women superintendents leading the nation's approximate 14,000 public schools. While current researchers describe the complex roles that the superintendency entails, there is little data on gender differences, specifically, how women superintendents achieve longevity in this role. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the longevity of women superintendents in public school districts and perceived barriers that may influence longevity, using the human relations approach as a theoretical guide. Data were collected using a qualitative, multiple case study of 5 women superintendents, with longevity of at least 6 years, via survey and interview. Data were analyzed for general and emergent themes and related to 3 research questions regarding perceived barriers and longevity. Findings indicated a shift in the perception of barriers over the last 2 decades, with important issues surrounding relationships and possible self-imposed barriers. The women superintendents were no longer worried about breaking the glass ceiling or competing with their male counterparts. Rather, they were concerned with balancing professional and personal responsibilities while maintaining positive relationships at school and at home. Social change may result by addressing perceived barriers of women superintendents to achieve longevity and gender equity. As a result, female perspectives and insights, which have been historically neglected and omitted, may be included in more local and national policy decision-making in educational administration.

This thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of research higher degree supervision and thereby its enhancement. My study departs from the current emphasis on issues of practice to offer a set of scholarly understandings embedded in the beliefs that supervisors and candidates hold about supervision and closely related academic mailers. It is aligned with the movement over the past two decades towards concentrating on understanding why teachers and students behave in particular ways, rather than describing what they do and how they do it. I draw on the literature of research higher degree (RI-ID) supervision, the conceptual framework of beliefs research and Gadamer's concept of the hermeneutic circle to argue that supervision is best understood as a plexus of closely related educational beliefs about research, teaching, learning and supervision. Research from this perspective acknowledges supervisions plural, multifunctional character and its holistic nature. The beliefs construct recognises the powerful effect that individualsibeliefs and attitudes have on the way they define educational tasks, make related decisions and prefer to act. Thirty-four participants from one engineering faculty were interviewed about their beliefs about the four components of the supervision plexus. Entire transcripts were coded, using a three-phase, inductive method of analysis incorporating constant-comparative techniques and conceptual field principles, to reveal individuals integrated thinking about the whole process of supervision. This method ensures that the findings remain embedded in the data and retain the richness of individual experience. I identified four different core tendencies to the plexus, based on two bipolar frames - controlling/guiding and task-focussed/person-focussed kinds of beliefs. The result is four global orientations to supervision: controlling/task-focussed, controlling/person-focussed, guiding/task-focussed and guiding/person-focussed. Subcategories accommodate individuals whose beliefs differ in specific aspects but whose focal beliefs fit the global group. Each orientation is elaborated by an orientation belief profile - an integrated system of beliefs about the aspects of the plexus that are common to the individuals in that category iso the profiles describe the orientations as much as they describe the individuals in each category. The beliefs in each profile are organised into six belief clusters and different dimensions of the beliefs describe each orientation. To show the location, density and type of inter-linkages among beliefs and belief clusters orientation webs were drawn. The four webs exhibit a high degree of interconnectedness among beliefs, confirming my contention of a supervision plexus of co-dependent and logically interrelated components. Research findings indicate that practitioners beliefs about teaching are central and powerful in determining their supervisory goals and their predisposition towards particular pedagogical approaches to achieving them. With this advanced understanding of the pedagogy of supervision, a case is built for viewing research higher degree supervision as a teaching activity within the university, and positing its management as a 'joint portfolio' between the teaching and learning centre and the research centre of the university. Other findings are that controlling/task-focussed beliefs are generally favoured by RI-ID candidates and that guiding/person-focussed beliefs more commonly describe the way supervisors think about supervision. Although their strategic enactment may differ according to circumstance, beliefs were found to be consistent across contexts. The supervisors role in shaping candidates' beliefs is seen to be diminished by the influence of candidates' preexisting beliefs about teaching. The study establishes a variety of understandings about supervision within this one engineering faculty, suggesting that pedagogical understandings may be more powerful than disciplinary expectations and attitudes as determinants of supervisory behaviour. The view of RI-ID supervision discussed in this thesis builds on the earlier research in meaningful ways that enhance our understanding of the process as a whole. The thesis provides possibilities for linking that research with more fruitful and rewarding doctoral experiences for supervisors and candidates.

<p>Denna kvalitativa studie undersöker personalens upplevelser av grupphandledning som ett yrkesmässigt stöd i psykosocialt arbete. Vidare undersöks hur grupphandledning kan bidra till personalens välbefinnande samt vilka egenskaper handledaren bör besitta. Studien utgår från en hermeneutisk forskningstradition med en kvalitativ ansats. Undersökningen bygger på semistrukturerade intervjuer med fyra yrkesverksamma personer med erfarenhet av grupphandledning. Resultatet tolkas utifrån Kadushins handlednings modell i socialt arbete och en förenklad form utav Antonovskys salutogena modell. Resultatet visar att grupphandledning utgör ett yrkesmässigt stöd samt bidrar till personalens utveckling såväl personlig som professionell, vilket har en positiv inverkan i personalens välbefinnande. Handledaren bör ha kunskap om organisationens kultur, de handleddas arbetsvillkor och arbetsförhållande samt inneha goda kunskaper om att handleda. Andra intressanta slutsatser är att handledare samt deltagarna i grupp-handledning bär ett personligt ansvar och är i behov av kontinuitet för att åstadkomma förändringar.</p>

Denna kvalitativa studie undersöker personalens upplevelser av grupphandledning som ett yrkesmässigt stöd i psykosocialt arbete. Vidare undersöks hur grupphandledning kan bidra till personalens välbefinnande samt vilka egenskaper handledaren bör besitta. Studien utgår från en hermeneutisk forskningstradition med en kvalitativ ansats. Undersökningen bygger på semistrukturerade intervjuer med fyra yrkesverksamma personer med erfarenhet av grupphandledning. Resultatet tolkas utifrån Kadushins handlednings modell i socialt arbete och en förenklad form utav Antonovskys salutogena modell. Resultatet visar att grupphandledning utgör ett yrkesmässigt stöd samt bidrar till personalens utveckling såväl personlig som professionell, vilket har en positiv inverkan i personalens välbefinnande. Handledaren bör ha kunskap om organisationens kultur, de handleddas arbetsvillkor och arbetsförhållande samt inneha goda kunskaper om att handleda. Andra intressanta slutsatser är att handledare samt deltagarna i grupp-handledning bär ett personligt ansvar och är i behov av kontinuitet för att åstadkomma förändringar.

Supervision of practice makes an important contribution to the development of psychotherapeutic skills in the training of psychologists (Bernard and Goodyear, 1998). Much research has, until recently, focussed on dyadic, hierarchical models of supervision, even though other forms of supervision have been developed. Peer group supervision has had little attention in the literature, although it is a common form of supervision utilised by psychologists in practice (Lewis, Greenburg and Hatch, 1988). A review of the literature considers the purposes of supervision; elements of dyadic supervision; various forms of group, peer and peer group supervision; and the leaming process in supervision. The development and implementation of a peer supervision group (pSG) of intern psychologists within the training setting of a University is described in this study. The PSG model was developed from the model proposed by Wilbur, Roberts-Wilbur, Morris, Betz and Hart (1991). Transcripts from nine audio-taped PSG sessions were analysed, and a comparison with four audio-taped dyadic supervision sessions was then undertaken. Grounded Theory methodology was employed in the design of the study and analysis of the data. The form and content of the two models of supervision were examined, with particular attention to the perspective of the trainees' learning experiences. The relative merits of both forms of supervision were assessed, and this analysis clearly demonstrates that peer group supervision has the potential to complement dyadic supervision by contributing differing learning experiences. A model of key influences upon, and effects of, participation in the two forms of supervision has been developed. Suggestions are made of ways in which dyadic supervision may be optimised, and recommendations for further development of the PSG emerge. The results were then considered from a neo-Vygotskian perspective. This enabled the findings to be linked to a comprehensive theory of learning, pointing to the key role of speech in thinking, and the contributions of the various forms of dialogue to deepened understandings. The discussion includes: consideration of techniques which enable trainees to obtain assistance from both more experienced practitioners as well as from their peers; an exploration of aspects of subjectivity and intersubjectivity; and contextual influences which have bearing on the study. This study identifies the need for further consideration of the supervision process in South Africa, and makes recommendations for the training of supervisors. The neo-Vygotskian model offers great promise both as a framework for understanding the leaming process in. supervision, and for developing guidelines for enhancing supervisory practice.

La supervision des opérations a toujours été une dimension clé du travail des managers de proximité, mais les publications récentes et le discours ambiant pointent en direction d'un affaiblissement de celle-ci au profit d'autres activités, tournées vers le développement des collaborateurs. Malgré la dispersion possible de l'attention des managers que peut engendrer la multi-activité, certaines études signalent un maintien de la supervision parmi leurs activités. Pour comprendre l'exercice actuel de la supervision dans un environnement managérial dynamique marqué par le morcellement des activités, la thèse étudie l'attention des managers de proximité et présente une étude de cas multiples : quatre managers ont été observés (shadowing), sur des périodes de deux semaines ; des entretiens inspirés de la méthode de l'instruction au sosie ont également été conduits. 1968 épisodes attentionnels de supervision managériale ont été identifiés et analysés. Cette analyse, qui met à jour différentes modalités de mise en œuvre et d'articulation des épisodes attentionnels, est complétée par une étude de la perspective attentionnelle des managers (les éléments structurant leur sensibilité quotidienne). La thèse identifie quatre composantes de l'activité de supervision, identiques d'un manager à l'autre: articulation et stimulation des actions,« advertance », pédagogie. Les processus attentionnels permettent aux managers d'exercer leur supervision de manière souple et d'assimiler la complexité et la variabilité des opérations. La recherche révèle la richesse de l'activité de supervision des managers, notamment à travers la mise à jour des composantes d' « advertance » et de pédagogie. / Supervision used to be one important side of first-line managers' daily activities. Recent research work and publications point out the fact that this activity is now losing its relevance compared to others dedicated to co-workers’ development. First-line managers themselves seem to have little attention left for supervision because of the myriad of activities in which they engage and which are prone to scatter their attention. However, some studies still find that the core of the supervisory activity remains. To better understand how managers exert supervision in a dynamic environment and among their fragmented activities, the thesis studies managers' attention. A multiple-case study made of four managers is presented. Data is collected through a two-week shadowing (mobile observation method) per manager. Interviews drawing on the interview-to-the double method are also conducted. 1968 attentional episodes of managerial supervision have been identified and analysed. This analysis reveals different modes of implementing and articulating attentional episodes and discovers aspects from managers' attentional perspective structuring their sensitivity to operations. The thesis identifies four components of managers' supervisory activity common to the managers: articulating actions, stimulating actions, "advertant", pedagogical. Through their attentional processes managers exert swiftly their supervision and subsume the complexity and variability of the operations they are responsible for. The thesis reveals the richness of managers' supervisory activity , particularly through the pedagogical and "advertant" components.

M.A. (M.W.) / Large companies regard the presentation of programs as very important. It is necessary so that more cost effective social work services could be given to the employees of the organizations. The evaluation of programs is an aspect that does not receive enough attention. It can enable the facilitator to improve future presentations and to make these more applicable to the client system, which in this case consists of supervisors of Telkom SA ...