Educational Supervision: From malaise to word

Authors

  • Mario Izcovich Psychologist, psychoanalyst and trainer. Member of the World Association of Psychoanalysis. Co-founder of the Barcelona Institute for Childhood

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32093/ambits.vi.63.504989

Keywords:

Educational supervision, institutional malaise, institutional pedagogy, singularity, community, symptom, active listening

Abstract

Schools have always been characterized by a structural tension between the universal (laws and regulations) and the singular (each student, teacher, and family). Within this framework, external supervision is proposed as a tool that opens reflective spaces to address institutional malaise. The article distinguishes supervision as a practice of listening and support, in contrast to normative control. It advocates conceiving the school as a living community, whose effects extend to all its members, both consciously and unconsciously. Institutional symptoms are expressed through repetition, conflict, excessive bureaucracy, or paralysis, and must be interpreted rather than repressed. Supervision does not provide ready-made solutions but instead generates questions and guidance that foster the construction of knowledge from within the institution. 

From a position of “not-knowing,” the supervisor accompanies processes without imposing solutions, supporting elaboration at the individual level (principals or counsellors) and/or collective level (like management teams). Ultimately, educational supervision is presented as an ethical and transformative tool that dignifies teaching and strengthens the school as a learning community.

References

BOE. Ley Orgánica 3/2020, de 29 de diciembre, por la que se modifica la Ley Orgánica 2/2006, de 3 de mayo, de Educación.

Lacan, J. (2013). El Seminario 16, De un Otro al otro. Paidós.

Lacan, J. (1992). El Seminario 17, El reverso del psicoanálisis. Paidós.

Lacan, J. (2016). Conferencias en las universidades norteamericanas (2da parte). Revista Lacaniana de Psicoanálisis. nº 21. Grama.

Llovet Planas, P. (2022). Visión breve de la obra de Francesc Tosquelles y su influencia en Cataluña. Temas de psicoanálisis nº 25. https://www.temasdepsicoanalisis.org/2023/01/17/vision-breve-de-la-obra-de-francesc-tosquelles-ysu-influencia-en-catalunya/

Izcovich, M. (2024). De la escuela conductual a la escuela reflexiva. Àmbits de psicopedagogía i orientació. nº 60.

Izcovich, M. (2025). La escuela que escucha. Ariel-Planeta.

Marrodán Gironés, J. A. (2022). La inspección de educación en la Lomloe: novedades y permanencias respecto a la loe. Supervisión 21, 59(59), 22. Recuperado a partir de https://supervision21.usie.es/index.php/ Sp21/article/view/521

Moyano, S. (2011). La supervisión como espacio para la reflexión educativa. Revista de educación social. nº 13.

Puig, J.M. (2022). Tosquelles y la pedagogía institucio¬nal, El Diario de la Educación, https://eldiariodelaeducacion.com/ tosquelles -y -la -pedagogia -institucional

Downloads

Published

2026-03-31

Issue

No. 63 (2026): March 2026

Section

Educational Psychology and Counselling

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Mario Izcovich

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The authors maintain their copyright and give the right to the first publication of the work to the journal, registered under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivs license. This license allows others to download the works and to share them with others as long as they credit the author, but it does not allow for any kind of modification or commercial use.