Yesterday, today and tomorrow : is social work supervision in South Africa keeping up

Abstract

This paper reports on exploratory research drawing on an historical analysis of social work supervision in South Africa and a qualitative inquiry into supervision practices of supervisors in an NGO environment. The aim was to examine the interplay between the development, current practices and future challenges of social work supervision. The research findings indicate that the historical and existing theoretical foundation and practice of social work supervision do not meet the dynamics of the contemporary social work domain in South Africa. Consequently, a context-specific conceptual framework within a social development paradigm is recommended for future supervision practices in South Africa.