The Teaching Supervision Practices in Secondary Schools: An Analysis of Teacher Characteristics in Burundi

This study examines the practices of pedagogical supervision in Burundi, a context that has been little explored despite the crucial importance of supervision in improving the quality of secondary education. It constitutes an original contribution by simultaneously analyzing the models of supervision, the phases of the supervisory process and the professional development activities, while considering the sociodemographic, professional and institutional characteristics of teachers and school establishments. The main objective of this research was to identify the supervision practices as perceived by secondary school teachers and to explore their relationships with various individual and institutional variables. To this end, a descriptive and correlational methodological approach was adopted. Data were collected using a validated questionnaire adapted to the Burundian context, involving (N = 187) teachers from 19 secondary schools distributed across five regions of the country. The analyses are based on exploratory factor analyses to identify the underlying dimensions of supervision practices, supplemented by Pearson correlations, t-tests and analyses of variance (ANOVA). The results reveal a predominance of clinical and peer supervision models, structured around the phases of preparation, observation and feedback. The individual characteristics of teachers show few significant relationships with supervision practices. On the other hand, the institutional status of school establishments significantly influences the provision of professional development, with private schools offering more opportunities than public schools. These results underline the urgent need to strengthen the training of pedagogical supervisors and to institutionalize collaborative mechanisms to sustainably support the professional development of teachers and improve the quality of secondary education in Burundi.