"This Is HARD": The Role of Emotions in Coaching Conversations

• In Event: The Role of Emotion in Teacher Learning and Instruction

Abstract

While teaching and teacher learning is widely accepted as a deeply personal, vulnerable, and emotional endeavor (Kelchtermans, 2005), the literature on teachers’ emotions in the context of instructional coaching is scarce. This paper offers an analysis of an extreme case (Yin, 2017) of a common phenomenon in which an experienced teacher left a coaching conversation in tears. We investigate the factors that contributed to the teacher’s strongly negative emotional response through the lens of Horn’s (in press) conception of pedagogical judgement. Our findings suggest that the introduction of a conflict between teachers’ professional identities and actions contributes to negative emotions. We also offer implications for instructional coaching more broadly by situating this case within a larger corpus of coaching conversations.

Authors

• Katherine Schneeberger McGugan, Vanderbilt University

• Brette Garner, University of Denver