Using Critical Sociocultural Perspectives in Instructional Coaching for Radical Change

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Instructional Coaching as Theory-Driven Professional Development

Abstract

Purpose
This presentation theorizes, describes, and evaluates an effort to translate critical sociocultural theoretical perspectives (Freire, 1994; Lewis, Enciso, & Moje, 2007; Vygotsky, 1978) into comprehensible, intentional, and measurable teaching practice through professional development that combines an intensive 30-hour workshop with longitudinal instructional coaching. The purpose is to highlight how using critical sociocultural theory (CSCT) as the driver of an instructional coaching intervention fuses individual teacher change with broader concern for the social (Ettling, 2012) and systems change (Milner, 2013) needed to improve schooling for multilingual and multicultural students.

Theoretical Framework
The instructional coaching model is theoretically informed by sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978) and critical social theory (Freire, 1994; Sleeter & Bernal, 2004). Sociocultural theory (SCT) describes learning as social, teaching as timely assistance, knowledge as cultural, and student performance as situative, influenced by social, cultural, and historical conditions (Rogoff, 1990; Tharp & Gallimore, 1988). SCT places a premium on the active sociocultural and historical nexus of relationships (Tharp, Estrada, Dalton, & Yamauchi, 2000). Critical theory, on the other hand, interrogates economic, racial, linguistic, and institutional barriers to educational equity (Kincheloe, McLaren, & Steinberg, 2011), allowing focus on teacher and student identities, power, and agency within the classroom ecology. Weiner (2007) views such critical teaching as “creative, multiperspectival, culturally responsive, emotionally responsive, political, contextual, and psychological in mood and orientation” (p. 66). The Six Standards instructional coaching model represents a synthesized and coherent pedagogical approach operationalizing critical sociocultural theory as teaching practices that result in more culturally and linguistically responsive teachers.

Methods and Data Sources
This study uses quasi-experimental classroom observation and qualitative data from urban elementary teachers (N = 34; 20 coached) to examine the effects of longitudinal instructional coaching to critical sociocultural principles of learning on teacher change and student English/language arts and English proficiency outcomes. Coached teachers participated in a 30-hour summer intensive workshop and received seven individual coaching sessions, which were video recorded.

Results
Coached teachers demonstrated statistically significant growth and sustainability of growth in use of critical sociocultural practices in comparison to a control group. Students of coached teachers statistically out-performed control group students on English/Language Arts and English proficiency assessments. Excerpts from coaching conversations illustrate that coached teachers (a) weighed issues of teacher and student identity, power, and agency in the teaching-learning relationship, (b) recognized social and system constraints; and (c) acted pedagogically to overcome those constraints.

Scholarly Significance
This presentation contributes to the knowledge base for instructional coaching by demonstrating that radical pedagogical change is possible when coaching moves beyond mimicry and strategy-based interventions. Critical sociocultural theory and practices makes the teacher-student relationship active in a context that acknowledges the sociocultural, historical, and political context for learning. As a result, teacher and student identities, use of power, and agency in teaching and learning are revealed as more important drivers of learning when the goal of instructional coaching is radically disrupting the status quo.

Author

• Annela Teemant, Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis