Coaching as Critical Leadership

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

Abstract

Objectives or Purposes
Coaches often face a degree of uncertainty as they carry out their work with teachers. This extends to both their own roles (Blamey, Meyer & Walpole, 2008) and their interactions with teachers around mandated policies and reforms (Coburn, 2010; Lang, 2012). Because they often function as “sensemakers” and “sensegivers” (Allen & Peneul, 2015; Weick, 2001), coaches must have an opportunity to 1) make sense of the ambiguity around their roles and related policies and 2) understand how their actions can either sustain or push back against inequitable schooling practices. This session will explore the role of critical leadership theory in guiding the work of instructional coaches and the research that helps to better understand their practice. The presenter will pose the following question: How can critical leadership theory help coaches prioritize equity goals as they interact with policy and curriculum reforms?

Perspectives (or) Theoretical Framework
Capper’s framework for critically oriented leaders (1998) will be discussed in relation to the presenter’s research and her current role as the teacher of an instructional coaching course. Capper provides questions about organizational change that educational leaders can apply to situations they encounter; these questions compel individuals to consider their work from a critical theory perspective, to interrogate the status quo and to question how decisions serve to marginalize or empower others.

Methods, Techniques or Modes of Inquiry & Data Sources
The presenter will introduce Capper’s questions for critically oriented leaders, discuss how she came to use this framework and share data about the implications it had on her participants, her research and her current instructional coaching work. Particular attention will be placed on the agency and reflection that this theoretical frame inspired.

Data were collected during the presenter’s l8-month qualitative study of four secondary literacy coaches (including the presenter) in one Midwestern urban district; emphasis will be placed on the coaches’ interactions around a controversial high school reform plan that was introduced during the study. Both inductive and deductive qualitative coding strategies (Saldaña, 2009) were applied to interview transcripts and to transcripts of biweekly coaching meetings. Discourse analysis (Gee, 2010) was applied to critical incidents identified during the coding process and to policy documents.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
Capper’s questions for critically oriented leaders inspired coaches to interrogate their relationship to district and school-level policies. Examples will be shared and emphasis placed on the discursive moves and strategies that reflected a critical stance.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
A focus on the technical aspects of the coaching role is important and necessary, but it is not sufficient to 1) address the equity and access challenges that our schools face and 2) help coaches understand the ways in which their interactions around existing policies can support equity goals or maintain existing systems of inequity. Data presented within this session supports the contention that coaching preparation should provide coaches an opportunity to engage with theoretical conceptions of the educational leader’s role.

Author

• Laura M. Lang, University of Wisconsin - Madison