Abstract
The object of this doctoral thesis is about the activity of the supervisor (S) in his position of supporting and mentoring of a trainee teacher (TT) while teaching in secondary schools. Whilst usually and historically accepted as part of the teachers’ education, this activity is not a proper position since casually taken on by teachers on top of their job. We based our analysis of the Supervisor’s activity in his work environment on the concepts of the Clinic of activity. Through the Instruction to the double Method we have been able to get an understanding of the actual activity of fifteen Supervisors in four different academic subjects (English, Sport, History & Geography, Mathematics). Our outcomes demonstrate that this role is not limited to the visit in the class followed by an interview but it is composed of tasks spread over nine faces themselves related throughout eight dilemmas. A matrix analysis reveals the unique activity of the Supervisor as well as an activity that lacks professional guidance. The Supervisor is facing conflicting concerns to eventually finds his activity among one of the three identified practices of supporting and mentoring: “teacher” Supervisor, “professional development” Supervisor, “emotional” Supervisor. Based on the developmental conceptualization of the “work activity” (Clot, 2008), we highlighted the four features - personal, interpersonal, impersonal, transpersonal - in the Supervisor's activity. However transpersonal and impersonal features are quite less represented than the other two features. This causes an important lack of balance in the “work activity” core dynamic that restricts the potential of development of the activity. This work eventually leads up to suggestions for improvements within design and application of educational processes in order to make possible for Supervisors to be proactive on their activity.