The Italian university system is now called upon to train professionals capable of operating in complex educational contexts, marked by structural fragility, organisational transformations, and growing demands for reflective, socio-emotional, and planning skills (Boffo, 2021; Ferrante & Gambacorti-Passerini, 2023). The latest data from Eurostat and the OECD highlight a mismatch between university education and society's needs, necessitating a rethink of educational models and practices (Oggionni, 2016). This gap is particularly evident in educational and social services, where professional work is based on relationships and takes place in unstable contexts characterised by multidimensional stresses and structural precariousness (Giovanazzi, 2022; Tramma, 2018).
In this context, pedagogical supervision represents a privileged observatory for questioning the role of the university in the construction of advanced professionalism (Oggionni & Palmieri, 2019). Understood as a formative and reflective tool, it supports the critical analysis of practices, promoting professional awareness, the quality of educational action, and the prevention of burnout (Oggionni, 2013; Olivieri, 2024).
This paper provides an overview of Italian educational programmes dedicated to pedagogical supervision, based on a desk analysis of public universities offering degree courses in education, supplemented by 15 interviews with university teachers who deal with the subject professionally and in their research. The results of the desk analysis paint a fragmented picture: there are no courses dedicated explicitly to pedagogical supervision; the topic appears only in more general courses or in some workshops. The area in which more structured support is observed is curricular internships, where, however, practices are heterogeneous. In addition, several master’s degrees and advanced training courses in supervision are emerging, but they are concentrated at a few universities.
The interviews highlight a growing awareness of the need to integrate practical skills, reflective tools, and experiential methodologies into university curricula. At the same time, they emphasise the urgent need to strengthen dialogue with educational services and experienced professionals in order to bridge the gap between academic training and operational requirements. In parallel, experimentation with a supervision model in a home education service has further highlighted the needs of professionals, including managing operational loneliness, emotional load, case complexity, and the need to maintain a reflective and planning posture. These skills require solid, situated theoretical and practical training that cannot be improvised.
The emergence of these elements confirms that pedagogical supervision is not only a support mechanism but also an indicator of the quality of university education (Madriz, 2019). In contexts where educational professionals are called upon to perform secondary functions, the gap between theory and practice is a critical issue (Cornacchia, 2020). The contribution, therefore, proposes rethinking the university as an educational infrastructure capable of establishing a stable dialogue with professional contexts, integrating reflexivity and socio-emotional skills into curricula (Stanzione & Di Genova, 2024). Among the avenues for transformation are the structural inclusion of reflective devices, the strengthening of internships, the consolidation of links with services, and the development of specific training programmes for educational supervisors.
