| In the last five decades or so, in many parts of the globe, TESOL teacher supervision and professional development have evolved from summative to more formative perspectives and practices. In Niger, past research has done little to examine the state of the current TESOL teacher supervision and professional development. This qualitative study examines the current supervisory practices and professional development of 9 TESOL teachers and 3 supervisors as expert sampling from Salma City. This study used constructivism theory, interviews, observations, group discussion interviews, and journal logs to enable the participants to describe their views of the current supervisory practices and voice their opinions of the professional development project presented to them, on the basis of their own perspectives. Although the sources of data collection above constitute an important part of the study, data were also collected from additional sources, which reflected participants' experiences to allow them to describe data from their own perceptions.An analysis of the data revealed various themes which emerged from the following predominant categories: (1) observation stages in Salma City, (2) conference approaches used with different teachers at the feedback, (3) supervision conducted for administrative monitoring, (4) teachers' opinions about the professional development project, (5) and teachers' perceived hindrances about promoting the professional development project.In general, the results showed that the current supervision used in Salma City was broken, very delinquent, hierarchical and custodial in nature. Though, TESOL teacher supervision used to be a by-product of clinical supervision, in its current state it is only limited to the observation stage while the other important stages were simply glossed over for reasons that may pertain to the socio economic and political climate in the country.Finally, the conclusion showed that teachers not only developed resistance and resentment toward the current supervisory practices, but were also very delighted about the professional development project presented to them. They were longing for freedom, democracy, dialogue, and collegiality in the supervisory process in Salma City. |
