Instructional supervision as transformative practice: The place for professional narratives

Abstract

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14244/198271991380

This text aims at discussing the place of teacher professional narratives, of an autobiographical nature, that are produced within an instructional supervision post-graduation context. The author starts by discussing the concept of quality in education. She places it within a concept of education for sustainable development and for the transformation of people and contexts. Then the author analyses the role teachers play in developing quality pedagogical practices. Even though education and training contexts play a determining role, teachers also have a key role in fighting discrimination and exclusion in schools, namely through their expectations regarding students’ achievement. The concept for supervision is also placed at the service of the same concept for quality in education. It is taken as theory and practice for the critical and collaborative regulation of pedagogy and professional development, within a vision for education as transformation and sustainability. The text concludes with an illustration of the way professional narratives are used as strategies for self-supervision of the teachers’ work within a post-graduate context. They are developed in the teachers’ professional contexts and serve to establish bridges between academic and experiential knowledge. They are focused on the ways teachers’ work is placed (or not) at the service of pedagogy and professional development founded on sustainability and transformation ideals. They also identify structural constraints, while signaling routes for action.

Key words: Instructional supervision, Professional narratives, Sustainability, Transformation.