Supporting Teacher Reflective Practice Through Instructional Supervision: A Qualitative Study

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Abstract
This qualitative descriptive study examined how school leaders in Arkansas and Tennessee, as part of their teacher supervision responsibilities, encourage and support teachers’ reflection as a key component of professional growth. Drawing on supervision and reflection literature, the research focused on what leaders do to move away from simply checking evaluation criteria boxes and instead work alongside teachers to drive meaningful improvement. Data were collected from interviews with 16 school leaders across both states and analyzed for common patterns. The findings revealed three key themes: (1) purposeful questioning and reflective dialogue help develop teacher agency; (2) leadership strategies such as building trust and modeling vulnerability foster reflective practice; and (3) challenges include time constraints, veteran teacher resistance to change, and lack of trust in the evaluator’s feedback. The findings indicate that leaders view reflection as essential to shifting supervision from monitoring to partnership. Effectiveness, however, depends on intentionally creating non-evaluative contexts and embedding reflection in school routines. This study offers practical insights for reframing supervision as a collective, growth-oriented process within instructional leadership.

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