Describes and interprets the processes that supervisors currently use in conference, relying on anthropological linguistics and other qualitative techniques. Reconstructs a contextual definition of the supervisor conference and suggests some implications for future supervisory study and practice. Supervisors' controlling behaviors make collegial…

A second and third generation of educational anthropologists and sociologists is studying American school and educational processes. Sociology is working toward a synthesis of agency and structure and exploring the sociology of knowledge. Anthropology, seeking to mediate local and global cultures, may also have implications for supervision theory…

Discusses types of authority (bureaucratic, personal, technical-rational, professional, moral, cultural, and ideological) and their implications for teacher supervision. Supervision is a helping profession, in service of the teacher. The heart of supervision lies in its relationships and its mission to improve the total teaching/learning…

Ethnographic methods and conversation analysis were used to examine five teacher-supervisor conferences and their contexts. Passive, collaborative, and adversarial teacher conference roles were constructed in the conference process. Implications for supervision, educational leadership and reform, and teacher recruitment and placement are…

A situational perspective of instructional supervision views context as mutually constructed by participants. The article presents a history of supervision, then details the rationale for a situational approach, presents a vision of what situational supervision may look like, and notes implications of a situational approach. (SM)

Summarizes results of a study offering both retrospective and prospective views of supervision, based on graduate students' definitions of supervision. Four emergent themes included the domains of supervision, supervisory tasks, supervisory relationships, and supervisor traits. Findings suggest that aspiring supervisors confuse administration with…

Anthropologically informed examination of instructional supervisors and supervision could reveal functions beyond counseling, teaching, and training. A literature review highlights a cultural dimension of supervision. An ethnography of supervision would elucidate the roles of supervisors just as training supervisors in ethnography could help them…