Identifying the theoretical foundations of coaching as a form of ongoing professional development in early childhood education: a meta-narrative review

Figures & data

Figure 1. Phases of the review

Table 1. Inclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria for both Groups	Additional inclusion criterion for Group A
- Concerns coaching, mentoring or other forms of ongoing professional development - In an educational context - Provided for teachers or educators, including pre-service - Explicitly informed by, presents, proposes or applies a theory - Published in English	- Highly cited (average >100 times per annum)
	Additional inclusion criteria for Group B
	- Set in ECEC - Published between 2002 and 2022

Figure 2. PRISMA for Group A search and screen.

Table 2. Characteristics of group A papers

Author/s	Date	Source	Peer reviewed	Citations per year (average)	Country	Focus	Educational level^	Article type	Theory/theories applied
Borko	2004	Ancestral	Yes	508	USA	PD general	School	Conceptual	Situated learning theory
Clarke and Hollingsworth	2002	Hand search	Yes	150	Australia	PD general	School	Conceptual; empirical	Study-designed (influenced by situated learning theory)
Darling-Hammond et al.	2017	Hand search	Yes	503	USA	PD general	School (secondary)	Secondary	Adult learning theory
Desimone	2009	Ancestral	Yes	419	USA	PD general	School	Conceptual	Study-designed
Guskey	2002	Hand search; ancestral	Yes	245	USA	PD general	School	Conceptual	Study-designed (influenced by James-Lange theory)
Joyce and Showers	2002	Hand search	No	326	USA	Coaching; PD general	School	Conceptual	Organisational and change theorists; conceptual systems theory; self-concept theory
Kennedy	2016	Database	Yes	197	USA	PD general	School (empirical and secondary)	Secondary	Study-designed
Kraft et al.	2018	Hand search; database	Yes	198	USA	Coaching	School (primary and secondary); ECEC	Secondary	Study-designed
Opfer and Pedder	2011	Ancestral	Yes	175	UK	PD general	School (primary and secondary)	Conceptual; secondary	Complexity theory
Timperley et al.	2007	Hand search	No	149	New Zealand	PD general	School	Secondary	Study-designed
Yoon et al.	2007	Hand search; ancestral	Yes	104	USA	PD general	School (primary)	Secondary	Study-designed

^ Level of schooling specified if stated; PD = professional development

Figure 3. PRISMA for Group B search and screen.

Table 3. Characteristics of group B papers

Author/s^	Date	Source	Peer reviewed	Country	Focus	Article type	Main theory/theories applied
Amireh	2016	Database	Dissertation	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Adult learning
Arteaga et al.	2019	Database	Yes	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Study-designed
Balduzzi and Lazzari	2015	Database	Yes	Italy	Mentoring	Conceptual; empirical	Reflective practice
Bawani and Mphahlele	2021	Database	Yes	Other: South Africa	Mentoring	Empirical	Social cognitive; communities of practice
Beaunae	2009	Database	Dissertation	USA	Mentoring	Empirical	Study-designed
Ben-Harush and Orland-Barak	2019	Hand search; database	Yes	Other: Israel	Coaching	Empirical	Cultural historical activity theory
Byrne and Norman	2020	Hand search	Yes	UK	Other: continuing PD	Empirical	Adult learning; transformative learning
Caroll-Lind et al.	2016	Database	Yes	New Zealand	Coaching; Mentoring	Empirical	Cultural historical activity theory
Cheng	2014	Database	No	Taiwan	Mentoring; other: community of practice	Empirical	Situated learning
Clough	2015	Hand search	Dissertation	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Study-designed
Cramer	2019	Database	Yes	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Other: social network theory
Crawford et al.	2017	Database	Yes	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Adult learning
Dunst et al.	2013	Database	Yes	USA	Coaching	Conceptual	Implementation science
Filliettaz	2014	Database	No	Other: Switzerland	Mentoring	Empirical	Other: interactional participation
Garte and Kronen	2020	Database	Yes	USA	Mentoring	Empirical	Cultural historical activity theory
Hadley et al.	2015	Database	Yes	Australia	Other: continuous professional learning	Conceptual	Other: contextual theory of leadership
Harris and Kaya	2015	Other: iterative	No	New Zealand	Mentoring	Conceptual	Other: feminist relational-cultural theory
Hine	2019	Database	No	USA	Coaching	Conceptual	Study-designed; transformative learning
Hobor	2014	Hand search; database	Dissertation	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Socio-cultural; transformative learning
Holland	2021	Database	Dissertation	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Implementation science
Howard	2014	Database	No	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Study-designed
Jamil	2012	Database	No	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Self-efficacy
Jenkins et al.	2015	Other: iterative	No	New Zealand	Mentoring	Conceptual	Study-designed
Kraft, Blazar, Hogan	2018	Hand search; database	Yes	USA	Coaching	Secondary	Study-designed
LaParo and King	2019	Database	No	USA	Coaching; PD general	Conceptual	Ecological
LaParo and Siskind	2022	Database	Yes	USA	Mentoring	Empirical	Ecological; other: systems theory
Lazzari et al.	2013	Database	Yes	Italy	Other: continuing PD with pedagogic guidance	Secondary; conceptual	Other: Reggio Emilia
Lee et al.	2019	Other: iterative	No	Other: South Korea	Coaching	Conceptual	Other: motivational interviewing
Lindberg	2010	Database	No	Other: Finland	Mentoring; PD general	Conceptual	Reflective practice
LoCasale-Crouch, et al.	2016	Database	Yes	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Implementation science
Lockhart-Findling	2016	Database	Dissertation	USA	Mentoring	Empirical	Guskey’s model
Mann et al.	2015	Database	Yes	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Social cognitive; self-determination
Martin	2020	Other	No	USA	Mentoring	Empirical	Transformative learning
Meadan	2017	Database	Yes	USA	Coaching	Secondary; conceptual	Study-designed
Miguel	2021	Database	No	USA	Coaching	Conceptual	Adult learning; Guskey’s model; self-efficacy
Morris et al.	2014	Database	No	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Study-designed
Navarro	2017	Database	Dissertation	USA	Mentoring	Empirical	Study-designed
Nolan and Guo	2019	Hand search	No	Australia	Mentoring	Empirical	Transformative learning
Nolan and Molla	2018	Hand search; database	Yes	Australia	Mentoring	Empirical	Habitus and reflexivity; transformative learning
Nolan and Molla	2018	Database	Yes	Australia	Mentoring	Empirical	Habitus and social practice
Nolan and Molla	2018	Database	Yes	Australia	Mentoring	Conceptual; empirical	Habitus and social practice
Peterson	2012	Database	Yes	USA	Mentoring	Empirical	Transtheoretical model
Philippou et al.	2015	Database	Yes	Other: Cyprus	Other: continuing PD	Empirical	Communities of practice; other: action research
Pianta	2021	Database	Yes	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Ecological
Quinones et al.	2020	Database	Yes	Australia	Mentoring	Empirical	Cultural historical activity theory
Ramey and Ramey	2008	Other: iterative	No	USA	Coaching	Conceptual	Study-designed
Rivera	2020	Database	Dissertation	USA	Mentoring	Empirical	Other: theory of mentor preparation
Roberts et al.	2014	Database	Yes	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Ecological
Rogers et al.	2020	Hand search	Yes	UK	PD general; coaching	Secondary	Study-designed
Rouse	2015	Other	No	Australia	Mentoring	Conceptual	Reflective practice
Royster	2020	Database	Dissertation	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Other: curricular noticing framework
Seplocha	2018	Database	No	USA	Coaching	Conceptual	Adult learning
Shannon et al.	2015	Hand search; database	Yes	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Study-designed
Shearsby	2015	Other: iterative	No	New Zealand	Mentoring	Conceptual	Socio-cultural
Sherbourne	2016	Hand search; Database	Dissertation	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Socio-cultural
Shiu	2002	Database	Other: Conference presentation	Taiwan	Mentoring	Empirical	Socio-cultural
Sibley et al.	2010	Other: iterative	No	USA	Mentoring	Conceptual; empirical	Transtheoretical model
Solarski	2021	Database	Dissertation	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Other: whole teacher approach
Steed and Durand	2013	Database	Yes	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Self-efficacy
Thapa and Akpovo	2020	Database	Yes	Other: USA/Nepal	Mentoring	Empirical	Other: framework of cultural humility
von Suchodoletz et al.	2018	Database	Yes	Other: UAE/USA	Coaching	Empirical	Self-efficacy
Waaland	2016	Database	Yes	Norway	Mentoring; other: educational leadership	Empirical	Autonomy
Waaland	2021	Database	Yes	Norway	Mentoring	Empirical	Job characteristics theory
Waaland	2014	Database	Yes	Norway	Mentoring	Empirical	Job characteristics theory
Walsh et al.	2021	Database	Yes	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Transformative learning
Weiland et al.	2018	Hand search; database	Yes	USA	Coaching; other: PD general	Secondary; conceptual	Adult learning
Whatman	2016	Database	No	Australia	Mentoring	Empirical	Cultural historical activity theory
Wyatt et al.	2017	Database	Yes	USA	Coaching	Empirical	Socio-cultural; other: bridging multiple worlds framework
Yang et al.	2022	Database	Yes	Other: China (Hong Kong)	Coaching	Secondary	Situated learning

^ Full references are provided in the supplementary material. PD = professional development

Table 4. Prevalence of theories in Group A and Group B.

Theory	Group A	Group B	All studies
Adult learning theories (total)	1	16	17
Transformative learning theory	0	7	7
Other adult learning theories	1	9	10
Social cognitive theory/self-efficacy	0	6	6
Cultural historical activity theory	0	5	5
Socio-cultural	0	5	5
Ecological	0	4	4
Habitus/reflexivity/social practice	0	3	3
Implementation science	0	3	3
Guskey	1	2	3
Situated/situative learning theory	1	2	3
Transtheoretical model of behaviour change	0	2	2
Communities of practice	0	2	2
Job characteristics theory	0	2	2
Self-determination theory/autonomy	0	2	2
Complexity theory	1	0	1
Organisational and change theories; conceptual systems theory; self-concept theory^	1	0	1
Clarke and Hollingsworth	1	0	1
Desimone	1	0	1
Kennedy	1	0	1
Kraft et al.	1	0	1
Timperley et al.	1	0	1
Yoon et al.	1	0	1
Other theories in Group B (total)^^	N/A	26	26
Pre-existing theories applied once each in Group B		13	13
Study-designed theories applied once each in Group B		13	13

^ This group of theories is listed together as these were the main theories cited in the paper by Joyce and Showers (2002) in Group A. ^^ This includes theories used in only one paper each, excluding theories presented in foundational studies, which appear in separate rows.

Joyce, B. and Showers, B., 2002. Student achievement through staff development. In: B. Joyce and B. Showers, eds. Designing training and peer coaching: our needs for learning. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1–5.

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