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INSPIRE AND BE INSPIRED supervision and coaching as a profession to be recognised on the European level. To that end, ANSE promotes the cross border exchange of information on professional developments between national organisations for supervision and coaching, training institutes and sister organisations. Consequently, the ANSE community supports cross border exchange of professional knowledge and experience between practitioners, the dissemination of practical and theoretical materials, and he formulation and implementation of (European) quality standards as well as reliable quality assurance systems. Research on supervision and coaching, preferably cross border, is considered to be a potentially fruitful — and even necessary — means to strengthen our profession. ANSE therefore aims to initiate, support and sustain research as much as possible. Support is needed, because research in this field is challenging to researchers and practitioners alike. Supervisors and coaches offer services which are hopefully useful to their clientele, and for which they expect to be publicly legitimised. But how shall they convince relevant stakeholders and authorities of the quality of their services? What can be said of their pretences, what of their methodology, what of the efficiency of supervisory and coaching processes, and what of the effects? ‘Hard evidence’ would help, based on both empirical and practice oriented research, such as case based reasoning, case based research or action research, supported by reliable quantitative studies and sound statistics. But various forms of qualitative research, however remote from the immediate usefulness these sometimes may seem, are just as well indicated, such as fundamental (sociological) research (why do coaching and supervision exist?), anthropological research (what do these — perhaps ritualised — practices say about our society?) and philosophical reflection (what does coaching/supervision tell us about the human condition?). This book offers a sample, and can as such be taken for a starting point on the road to further research in order to raise the quality and reliability of our services in Europe. That is the intention. But it leaves open the question how to synchronize our efforts and at the same time pay our due respect to the cultural and institutional diversity of our continent. Europe is a continent of many speeds, and this certainly goes for the diverse tempi, directions and ways of implementing supervision, and to be sure, coaching as well. There are marked differences in history, culture, institutional developments and systems of financing professional guidance, in the views on, and the definition of, supervision and so on.
