Professional Supervision for Principals
A Primer for Emerging Practice

This Element offers a fresh perspective on supporting principals through the collaborative, co-agentic approach of professional supervision.

Mary Ann Hunter (Author), Geoffrey Broughton (Author)

9781009430678, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 March 2025

86 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 0.5 cm, 0.15 kg

School leaders work in increasingly complex systems. Alongside leading learning, they daily navigate the needs and expectations of educational departments, teachers, students, parents, society, and themselves. Leadership can therefore be a dynamic vocational calling, but studies show that principals' professional agency, career sustainability, and wellbeing are diminishing. This Element brings a fresh perspective to how educational leaders can be better served and supported by collaborative, co-agentic partnerships at this time. It makes the case for professional supervision, a practice commonplace in clinical and pastoral professions that offers facilitated, action-oriented attention to the interplay of role, 'soul', and context. As a practice-based primer, this Element reclaims supervision against outdated associations with performance management by drawing on interdisciplinary research and the authors' own experience as supervisor partners with principals. It proposes a new schema of professional supervision in education informed by curiosity, unlearning, resonance, and attunement in a rapidly changing world.

1. Introduction
2. 'Nice but not necessary': the vexed place of reflective practice in education
3. Frameworks and practices of professional supervision
4. CURA for education leaders: a schema for professional supervision in education
5. Closing
References.

Subject Areas: Teacher training [JNMT]