Summary

Supervisory leadership must be enacted as a daily and persistent practice to support teachers’ efforts to educate children, despite the constant influx of accountability demands and requirements from internal and external forces that often distract from the core function of teaching and learning. As a field, supervision has progressed from autocratic practices used to inspect and control teachers to more developmental and differentiated forms to support teachers’ own wish to evaluate, understand, and improve their practices. The tensions between supervision as a support and the summative aspects of evaluation continue to polarize the teacher–supervisor relationship.

Supervisory leadership is a collaborative process that builds cultures of trust and risk-taking. Supervisory leadership connects supervision, teacher evaluation, and professional development to support teacher growth and development. Embedded in these processes are the principles of adult learning and career-stage theory to accommodate various needs to foster cognitive development and enhance instructional practices.