Supervision in Qualitative Social Research: On Coping with Difficult Emotions of Those Researching and Those Researched

Abstract

In the broad field of human sector, supervision is one of the primary forms of learning and professional development. Scientific research – primarily that conducted in the field and based on encounters with interviewees – can also be placed in this frame. The issue of critical reflection on the actions taken by researchers at that time, on their attitudes and relations with the subjects, on ethical dilemmas, as well as on the development of skills in interacting with the (often suffering) Other is particularly significant in sociology, in scientific reflection on social work, anthropology, or pedagogy, i.e. in fields based on qualitative research to a large extent. The purpose of this article is to present the basic issues related to the recently emerging suggestions for the introduction of supervision into the field of social qualitative research. In the beginning of the article, we briefly comment on the theme of supervision in the context of the conditions of scientific work in modern academy. We further consider the problem of researchers’ vulnerability and point out the possible functions of supervision intended for them. In the last part of the text, we address the terminological issues concerning the conceptual delimitation of supervision for researchers – separating it from clinical supervision or tutorship and scientific supervision, also referred to as supervision – concisely revealing how research supervision has been described in the literature in recent years.