Teacher supervision and evaluation are fundamental responsibilities of the principal. Yet principals and teachers find their supervisory interactions to be difficult and unsatisfying experiences. This article explores the micropolitical context in which supervision and evaluation take place. Highlighting specific examples in New York City, the article argues that the environment in which teacher-principal interactions occur is shaped by union contracts, state and district personnel policies, and precedents set by local experiences with teacher dismissals. These historical and structural factors and others converge to create three traps of supervision.

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In its decisions New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985) and Vernonia v. Acton (1995), the U.S. Supreme Court legitimated the actions and policies of school authorities. In doing so, it also defined and legitimated the following three roles of school authorities: agent-of-state, custodial, and tutelary. Hence, the role of school authorities and the nature of their relationship with students has become a vacillating one. This article explores the trichotomous roles cited in these U.S. Supreme Court decisions. It also examines that although school authorities claim, in their professional judgment, to be acting in the best interest of the students, they are reproducing and reinforcing the asymmetrical power relationships in schools and society. Finally, this article addresses ethical ramifications of, what those concerned with social justice designate as, the systemic violence that may be wrought by school authorities enacting their trichotomous roles.

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