C.O.A.C.H: a cross-national study of coach training for teachers across 5 countries

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the current study is to examine stakeholder perceptions of coaching principles and practice within a coach training programme with experienced teachers across 5 countries. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with professionals working with fellow teachers undergoing coach training. The aim of the interviews was to collect perceptions of those who work with coach trainees, in terms of changes in their practice and attitude. In addition, a survey was administered to those teachers undergoing coach training to elicit self-reported ideas of competency and relevance of the competence details within the ICF guidelines. The outcomes of the study imply that coach training can achieve early and rapid improvements to practice, with wider positive effects within schools. The procedural aspects of coaching were more easily achieved and practised by trainees. Those aspects which required higher-order practices or changes in attitude and beliefs were less readily adopted and were often seen as less important to coaching practice. However, there is a reason for optimism in that those attributes that are recognised as important are reported as being achieved at higher levels and there appears to be potential for a pedagogical approach to the development of coaching competencies.

KEYWORDS:

• School coaching
• coach training
• national comparison
• novice coach
• evaluation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Sean McCusker is an Associate Professor of Education at Northumbria University in England. He has a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering but has spent many years in educational research and development, where he has been applying creative ideas to adapt practices and techniques from a range of environments for use in education. His research interests are centred on Understanding and Communication within broad educational contexts. This covers many strands including; developing methods for representing large and complex data sets, understanding how evidence is interpreted and used, Assessment and Assessment for Learning and LEGO® Serious Play®. He has been involved in a number of cross-national Projects, taking part in and leading the U.K. partnership in projects on; Coaching, Girls and STEM, LEGO® Serious Play® and Seniors and Technology.

Oakleigh Welply is an Associate Professor at the School of Education, Durham University. She received her PhD in Sociology of Education from the University of Cambridge. Her main areas of research and teaching include social theory; the relationship of education to issues of language, religion, globalisation and citizenship; national policies of integration and youth identities; immigration and education in France and England; the development of cross-national methodologies for research with diverse communities in European countries and global citizenship education. Theoretically, her work is mainly inspired by the works of Paul Ricoeur, Hannah Arendt and Pierre Bourdieu to investigate the intersection between wider structures and the subjectivities of young immigrants’ identities and experiences.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership [grant number Project number 2015-1-IT02-KA201-014883].