Understanding how instructional supervisors promote teachers’ professional learning in the Lebanese context : a multiple-case study of two private schools -

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand how instructional supervisors promote teachers’ professional learning in two private schools in a new context- Lebanon. The study aimed to: explore and identify instructional supervisory roles and practices as well as other school factors that promote or hinder teachers’ professional learning; and provide recommendations for, practitioners and policy makers in order to improve instructional supervisory practices so as to enhance teachers’ professional learning experiences. The study is grounded in a phenomenological qualitative research tradition, which explored instructional supervisors’ and teachers’ perspectives on instructional supervisory roles and school factors which promote or hinder teachers’ professional learning experience. The study was conducted in two large private K-12 schools where participants were selected from the elementary divisions. The participants included: 6 instructional supervisors- coordinators and heads of departments; and 25 elementary teachers- of this total, 12 teachers participated in individual interviews, and a different set of 13 teachers participated in focus group interviews. Triangulation was achieved through the collection of documents and records, and the focus group interviews served as a member check to further enhance internal validity. The results showed considerable similarities between participants’ perspectives and the international literature with respect to supervisory roles that promote teachers’ professional learning, as well as participants’ mindfulness of factors that hinder teachers’ professional learning. The results also indicated two discrepancies whereby participants failed to reference two factors frequently mentioned in the international literature as essential to promoting teachers’ professional learning: the creation of a Professional Learning Community (PLC); as well as the adequate training of administrators and instructional supervisors. A