‘Freeing Fictions with Compassion’ : improving my practice as a clinical supervisor through my living-educational theory

Wadsley, Margaret C. (2024) ‘Freeing Fictions with Compassion’ : improving my practice as a clinical supervisor through my living-educational theory. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This research was designed to generate practitioner knowledge based on understanding, explaining and validating a process of mutual improvement within the supervisory relationship, which is at the heart of my practice. After a long career as an educator and therapist I integrated my Adlerian feminist approach with Living Educational Theory (LET) research to provide the methodology for this doctoral research. This thesis provides a values-based alternative to contemporary professional effectiveness research and expertise development models for evaluating and explaining practice improvement. ‘Freeing Fictions with Compassion’, the living-educational-theory that elucidated my explanation of mutual improvement within the supervisory relationship, forms a sound basis for on-going professional learning and development. With the collaboration of supervisees I work with at relational-depth, I recorded 66 hours of supervision sessions. I also clarified a constellation of practice values during a detailed self-inquiry and devised a supervisee-led practice evaluation using Rich Pictures. The innovative assemblage of methods in my research design were compatible with the socially just principles of Adlerian Psychology and Living Educational Theory. Together they united LET’s tried and tested qualitative approach with reflexive explorations in the form of poetry, stories, artwork, Rich Pictures, Early Recollections, and creation of multimedia based elucidatory narratives. I also drew on Adlerian practice tools to support data collection and integrated Adlerian ideas about metaphor and embodied knowledge to support my data analysis. The research process enabled me to create new insights into Adler’s concept of the fictional final goal and the part it plays in unconsciously evoking defensiveness and impasse in professional relationships. The impact of this research reaches beyond clinical supervision to roles of a supervisory nature in a wide range of settings, for example, education, health, social care, and different supervisory contexts.