Principals in Lesotho are formally responsible for overseeing teaching and learning, yet no structured supervision framework exists to guide this role. As a result, classroom practice largely goes unmonitored, and the supervision that does occur tends to be ad hoc, evaluative, and summative, disconnected from teachers’ professional growth or student achievement and offering teachers little voice in the process. This conceptual paper argues that clinical supervision offers a viable alternative: a formative, collaborative framework capable of linking teacher professional development to improved student outcomes. Drawing on the foundational work of Goldhammer and Cogan, and Glickman’s Developmental Supervision Theory, alongside contemporary literature on reflective and collegial supervisory practice, the paper reconceptualises clinical supervision as a cycle of classroom observation, reflective dialogue, and constructive feedback rather than an inspection exercise. It further situates this reconceptualisation within a social justice lens, contending that clinical supervision can advance equitable, inclusive teaching by responding to teachers’ individual developmental needs. The paper concludes that meaningful educational transformation in Lesotho cannot rest on policy reform alone; it requires sustained investment in school-based supervisory practice that translates the aspirations of the CAP, LIEP, and ESSP into classroom-level change. Implications are offered for instructional leadership development, principal training, and future research on formative, teacher-centred supervision models in low-resource educational contexts.
Keywords: Clinical supervision; Educational transformation; Instructional leadership; Teacher professional development; Social justice