Supervising teachers' orientations and conceptions about content and process in teaching practice

Research has identified the importance of teaching practice in student teachers' professional development. Supervising teachers are crucial in this process. While the focus previously has mostly been on student teachers' pedagogical development, it is equally important to understand how supervisors enable development processes through their conceptions of their task. The aim of this study is to shed light on supervising teachers' conceptions about practice supervision in terms of affordances and supervision orientations. The qualitative data (N = 26) consisted of a discussion item and written assignments concerning the supervision process collected in connection to supervision training. The data were analysed through content analysis. We identified four supervision orientations. The teaching orientation was dominant, yet differences in how supervisors conceptualise affordances during practice emerged. The results highlight the need to support supervisors in conceptualising the relational dimension as an affordance and strengthen supervisors' sense of their role as teacher educators.