Dilemmas of Teachers Related to the Supervision in Schools: A Case Study

Abstract

School supervision is generally defined as the process of determining the realization level of performance indicators in schools, and evaluating the quality of education. Supervisors are not directly involved in these activities, and are appointed by the Ministry to assess fulfilment level of these educational activities. In current study, teachers’ perspective related to the supervision in Türkiye was examined in a qualitative research design. A single case study model was adopted to explore the case in depth. The aim of this research was to explore views of 28 teachers on supervision. The study group was chosen through maximum variation sampling technique. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews, observations, and focus group interviews. Thematic content analysis technique was adopted to analysis of raw data. Four themes emerged based on the analysis. These themes were low stakes inspection, high stakes inspection, decentralization, and decreasing in quality. The results revealed that the participants were in a dilemma about the supervision in schools. Moreover, this dilemma was related to the audit of teacher performance by school principal and the supervision of school by ministry inspectors. In addition, through the focus group interviews, the suggestions of the participants with different perspectives on inspection were explored and thus more generalizable themes were produced.