The Plantation of Instructional Supervision

This case explores a newly implemented Strategic Education Plan, spearheaded by Principal John Barlow, which has added some tensions and sparked concerns among parents and teachers that the myopic focus on standardized test scores risks erasing the cultural richness that defines the school. The narrative explores the complexities of balancing accountability and cultural responsiveness in an educational setting where both seem to be at odds. Readers are asked to consider the case through a plantation lens and consider the ways the traditions associated with it ‘colors’ the process of education and supervision. In this case, the reader explores how the plantation corporeally and discursively influences instructional and supervisory processes, most notably by erasing or reducing certain aspects of race, culture and diversity. The case is followed by a section that unpacks some of the issues of the plantation narrative and guides the reader through identifying these issues with a set of thought-provoking questions grounded in the literature. The article is concluded with a practical application section which outlines an emerging framework that centers and honors culture and race in the supervisory process. This framework is discussed as a way to move beyond superficial responses – such as merely increasing oversight to regulate behaviors – and affirm the power of history, race, and culture.