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Abstract
In social work, supervision is valued as a crucial activity for professional learning and development. Over time, an extensive body of literature has developed that is largely theoretical and practice-oriented. The development of an empirical body of knowledge for supervision has been slow with most approaches supported solely by anecdotal accounts. An extensive review of the empirical studies on supervision conducted in the past decade was undertaken. Two separate streams of inquiry were found; one focused on supervision of professional staff and one focused on field education of students. This body of research is reviewed in two companion papers. Recent studies of supervision of staff are largely descriptive and exploratory yielding limited knowledge for evidence-based supervision. Organizational and professional issues related to the dearth of studies are discussed.
