This book is about language teacher supervision – a profession that many teachers enter almost by accident. Teachers can be promoted into supervisory positions for many reasons: they are excellent teachers, they have experience, they have “people skills,” they are seen as loyal to the administration, they have seniority, and so on. Seldom are teachers made supervisors because they have had specific professional preparation for the role.

Sometimes teacher supervision feels like a tug-of-war, a power struggle between the supervisor and the supervisee. At other times, supervision can be a very rewarding profession, full of teamwork. As I look back upon my own career, it appears that I have been working between the tug-of-war and the teamwork for more than 30 years.

This book is a combination literature review and casebook. It is not a memoir, although some of my experiences are woven into it. My first supervisory job was in Korea in the summer of 1973. I was hired to teach and coordinate a remedial reading component of an education program for American soldiers. The only requirement for teaching in this program was a bachelor's degree in any field. With my teaching credential and limited experience, I was seen as one of the best-prepared reading teachers in the region, so I was asked to be a supervising teacher for the program.