Teacher Supervision through Professional Growth Plans: Balancing Contradictions and Opening Possibilities

Abstract

This article uses a micropolitical perspective to analyze the mandatory implementation of teacher professional growth plans (TPGPs) in Alberta, Canada, drawing upon findings of a qualitative study. Teachers and principals interviewed after 3 years of implementing this policy appeared to work within three basic contradictions related to the intersections of power and knowledge: (a) promoting teacher self-direction while increasing surveillance; (b) honoring individual teachers’ ways of knowing while narrowing teacher learning to a technicist model; and (c) focusing on teacher risk taking, creativity, and personally meaningful learning while increasing alignment with school and district goals and provincial teaching standards. However, principals and teachers found productive ways to balance these three tensions or work around them. This article describes strategies exercised particularly by administrators to implement the policy within these tensions, and it concludes by discussing this model of TPGPs in terms of negotiation of control.