The field of supervision has perennially struggled to define itself and, hence, find a niche within the larger field of education and, more narrowly, even within the field of instructional leadership. A sort of an odd, almost contradictory state exists, one in which precludes, in my opinion, the field of supervision from gaining traction as a…

As a field of study, supervision has gone through a tumultuous history and continues to struggle for visibility. Its principles related to teaching and learning are often discussed, yet the term supervision has been controversial more than once. For a variety of reasons, historically and conceptually, supervision has traveled incognito under…

Instructional leadership can be explained as an educational leadership approach whereby the school principal engages in a wide range of activities aiming to improve teaching and learning for all students. A recent meta-analysis found that female principals engaged in more active instructional leadership than male counterparts. The current…

The purpose of this article is to chronicle the views of eight prominent professors of supervision regarding the state of instructional supervision. A confluence of factors has influenced the evolution of supervision as a practice and incipient field. Issues involving its very definition, its scope and methods, its status as a field, and its…

The current qualitative study sought to examine how male and female principals enact their instructional leadership. Data were collected through 59 semi-structured interviews with 36 female principals and 23 male principals from Israel, and analysed in a four-stage process--condensing, coding, categorising, and theorising. Findings presented two…

Supervision as a field, in the main, remains susceptible and thus vulnerable to various forces, ideological and otherwise, that constrain its ability to play a significant role in instructional improvement and thus in educational leadership. Adherence to inspectional and faultfinding supervision under the guise of standards-based and other…

This paper reports on an ongoing 3-year study of the current status of instructional supervision within New York City public schools. Under the influence of a centralized and bureaucratically managed system (i.e., top down initiatives), educational reform in New York City has had serious consequences for both the theory and practice of…

Since the assistant principalship originated as an administrative function, it is not surprising that assistant principals' primary responsibilities have always centered on routine administrative tasks, custodial duties, and discipline. Recent efforts to expand the assistant principal's role to include instructional leadership can be historically…

This paper reports on the final phase of a three-part study on the status of instructional supervision within several New York City public schools. In the first parts of the study the researchers found, through extensive use of surveys (questionnaires and interviews), that centralized educational reform had serious consequences for instructional…

The reflections of an assistant principal portray the dilemmas of the supervisory role and the shift from a bureaucratic to a collegial culture. A basic conflict between the necessity to evaluate and the desire to be of genuine help to teachers is outlined. (SLD)

The field of instructional supervision in schools has a history of being misunderstood and devalued, having been beset by problems of definition and purpose. This paper examines the history of supervision and its ties with educational administration, and describes implications for supervision and administration. There is a history of tension…

Postmodernists have criticized modern conceptions of supervision as bureaucratic, hierarchical, and oppressive. This paper asserts that the postmodern proclivity to completely eschew expert supervision, evaluation, and judicious use of directive supervision is misguided, potentially limiting, and dangerous. The paper argues that collegial…

The development of public school supervisors has been varied and complex. Examined are the factors that led supervisors, in the early twentieth century, to move away from autocratic and bureaucratic methods and adopt more professional standards. (SI)

Supervision as a field, in the main, remains susceptible and thus vulnerable to various forces, ideological and otherwise, that constrain its ability to play a significant role in instructional improvement and thus in educational leadership. Adherence to inspectional and fault finding supervision under the guise of standards-based and other…

In this exciting, new edition of "Supervision That Improves Teaching," the authors have taken their reflective clinical supervision process to a new level, with the planning conference now the heart of the supervision cycle. Sullivan and Glanz have addressed the dilemmas of preserving meaningful supervision in an era of high-stakes…