Supervision is currently of considerable interest in social work and is seen as a vital activity for meeting many professional demands: the continuing development of professional skills, practitioner wellbeing, the safeguarding of competent and ethical practice and the oversight of casework. A recent UK review of evidence found that the empirical basis for supervision was relatively weak (Carpenter, Webb, Bostock and Comber, 2012) and evidential support for supervision as a core practice in social work is needed. This is a significant challenge to supervision educators and researchers. Given the breadth in understanding and implementation of social work across the globe and its distinctive shape in specific national settings, supervision is likely to be very different across these diverse contexts but little comparative data is available. A modified Delphi study was devised to address the question:is there an international consensus on the agenda for research and development of supervision in social work? This article will outline the processes of study design and recruitment and will report on findings from the first phase of the project.

Critical reflection is a method for self-evaluation and critical analyses of the premises and contextual constraints of social work in order to find alternative ways of action. In this article I will discuss the pressures and promises of critical reflection for social workers trying to cope with their work in changing contexts without losing their faith and motivation to stay in the career and without getting caught into a self-made professional trap of becoming exploited by their idealism. Critical reflection does have potential to promote conscious agency and critical subject positions. In its pressures to produce transformation and political emancipation, critical reflection might simultaneously constitute a trap for practitioners. However, critical reflection may offer the potential for coping with the challenges of change and of differing contexts of action by helping to orientate and re-orientate professional action in a contingent world where change is continuous.

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Research-mindedness is used for promoting social workers' interest in research-based evidence and best-practice, and the role of research has become central in education. New understanding of expertise reconstructs the practice and research relationship. Latest research on expertise refers to a shift from acquisition and transmission of knowledge into construction and invention of knowledge, which matches the social work urge to cope with the ever-changing complexity that has to be dealt with in the everyday practices of the profession. There are also demands for professional expertise according to the model of evidence-based expertise. The bases for promotion of research-oriented practice are even contradictory. Research-mindedness needs to be extended and could be called practice-research-mindedness. It implies an ideal of a reflexive expert and a researching-practitioner and practice research. This is a challenge for social work education for creating forums for learning and innovative knowledge creation and production, for knowledge-creating communities where knowledge creation and production in the every-day professional practices is integrated into research-based knowledge production. The focus of this article is to discuss (from the Finnish context) the implications of the strong research emphasis in social work education.Tutkimussuuntautuneisuus on uusi käsite, jolla halutaan edistää tutkimukselliseen näyttöön ja ns. hyviin käytäntöihin perustuvaa sosiaalityötä. Tämän ajattelun myötä tutkimuksen asema uudistuvassa sosiaalityöntekijäkoulutuksessa nähdään entistä tärkeämpänä. Uudistuva käsitys asiantuntijuudesta puolestaan määrittää tutkimuksen ja käytännön suhdetta uudella tavalla. Viimeaikaisessa asiantuntijuustutkimuksessa on painottunut tiedon hankinnan ja siirtämisen sijasta tiedonluomista korostava näkökulma. Tämä käy hyvin yhteen sosiaalityön monimutkaistuvien ja muuttuvien toimintaympäristöjen asettamien haasteiden kanssa. Sosiaalityöhön kohdistuu myös paineita omaksua tieteelliseen näyttöön perustuvan asiantuntijuuden malli. Tutkimuksen keskeisyys korostuu erilaisista intresseistä huolimatta. Tutkimussuuntautuneisuuden sijaan pitäisi puhua tutkivasta sosiaalityöntekijästä ja käytäntötutkimus-orientaatiosta, refleksiivisestä ja tutkivasta sosiaalityöntekijä-asiantuntijasta. Sosiaalityön koulutuksessa nämä haasteet merkitsevät sellaisten uudenlaisten oppimisen ja tiedontuotannon foorumeiden*/tietoa luovien yhteisöjen*/rakentamista, jotka kiinnittävät opetuksen, tutkimuksen ja innovatiivisen tiedontuotannon sosiaalityön arjen käytäntöihin.

INTRODUCTION: Supervision is a well-established component of practice in the health and social care professions. In recent years, however, relentless changes in the nature of professional roles within these contexts have led to corresponding variations in how professional practice supervision is configured and delivered.METHOD: This article examines how professional supervision and its future are seen by an international group of experts in social work supervision. The evolving perceptions of social work supervision’s role, and the relationship to professional autonomy in the social sphere are explored with reference to the authors’ earlier research.FINDINGS: The tension between supervision as a surveillant tool of management and a practice of critical reflection is acknowledged in literature as posing a threat to one aspect of professional autonomy and agency.IMPLICATIONS: The authors pose an alternative, theoretically grounded, approach based on the traditions of critically reflective supervision to assist the recognition and management of the balance between support and surveillance or managerial organisational dimensions. Meta- theoretical understanding of professional supervision in the frame of human agency will help both practitioners and supervisors to construct sustainable and proactive social work. Instead of despairing about the loss of autonomy, the professionals may go through significant societal and professional transformations as subjects of their own expertise and professional agency.