Methodological reflections: supervisory discourses and practice-based learning

Abstract

The concept of dialogue is often examined apart from the social and historical context in which it is embedded. This paper identifies how dialogue between a superior and a subordinate generates a reorganisation of situated knowledge in the education and training of nurse teachers. We created an analytic method of supervisory discourse founded on differences between discourse-based and practice-based theories. The findings elicit two forms of dialogues: transformative and exploratory. Through the former, supervisors try to make their students reformulate their understanding by facilitating learning through questions and hints or to support their self-reflections in local contexts. Conversely, exploratory dialogue involves the participants’ willingness to raise and share their tacit knowledge, including an orientation towards current practices and relational change, and go beyond the local contexts. We suggest that our findings create ways of understanding the meaning of generative discourse in higher education.

Keywords:

• knowledge creation
• practice-based learning
• supervisory discourse