Opening Space: Collaboratively Developing a Preservice Supervisor Community of Practice

• In Event: Developing New Models of Supervision That Bridge the College to Classroom Theory-Practice Gap

Abstract

In response to the lack of embedded, responsive professional development for the graduate students in supervisory roles, we embarked on a quest to establish a cross-program, non-hierarchical community of practice that met monthly over the course of the academic year, within which supervisors could identify, discuss, and problem solve real problems of practice while exploring theories and values in connection to their clinical work as well as seek out connections to research and scholarship. Our study focuses on the effectiveness of employing a distributed leadership model to create a generative professional space that would be responsive to the experiences, needs, and aspirations of our pre-service supervisor community.

Authors

• Mary Klehr, Madison Metropolitan School District/University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Thomas Owenby, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Kelly Hayek, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Laura M. Lang, University of Wisconsin - Madison