Course-Based Coaching for Equity and Justice

• In Event: Equity-Focused Coaching Supports in Virtual Environments

Abstract

This paper describes four course-based coaching projects to support undergraduate education majors, a majority of whom are young white women, in working with preK-6 students in socially, culturally, and linguistically diverse school communities across varying phases of their teacher education program. The education majors’/preservice teachers’ (PTs’) first field/coaching experience occurs during their freshman or sophomore year within the context of a children's literature course for elementary school instruction. Via a partnership with the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, PTs help to facilitate a bilingual, community-based storytime/early literacy program for BIPOC families of PreK children in under-resourced communities. The instructor’s critical approach to coaching (Aguilar, 2020) engaged PTs in small-group coaching sessions that focused on family/kid-watching (Owocki & Goodman, 2002) and exploring PTs' perspectives about children/families who are not members of the PTs' own sociocultural groups. Data indicate that the field/coaching experience helped to disrupt some of the PTs’ taken-for-granted assumptions about BIPOC families.

The PTs’ second and third field/coaching experiences occur in their junior year within the context of the courses, Applied Human Learning (AHL) and Reading Assessment and Development (RAD). In the AHL course, pairs of PTs plan and film a virtual mock lesson. After viewing the lessons, the instructor leads a 20-minute conference with the PTs. Although AHL focuses on critical pedagogies, the course-based coaching followed cognitive (i.e. prompting PTs towards self-reflection) and humanistic (i.e., focusing on the relationship between coach/coached) approaches. Similar to the benefits of a Retrospective Video Analysis (Mosley Wetzel et al., 2017), the mock lesson provided a concrete mode to examine different teaching points. In the RAD course, instructional coaches supported PTs’ facilitation of specific literacy education skills with children in virtual setting relative to the course content. Their coaching likewise followed a cognitive approach that engaged PTs in reflective writing practices. Many of the PTs’ reflections were suggestive of a divide between theory and practices in terms of the content PTs were learning and the issues they were "seeing" with children. Data imply that the two course projects support PTs’ self-reflection and help to illuminate issues of equity in the classroom.

The PTs’ fourth course-based field/coaching experience occurs during their senior year in Reading Methods. Here, peer-to-peer models of coaching were woven throughout the PTs’ development of literacy mini-lessons. The PTs rehearsed with peers via video conference sessions in break-out rooms, which afforded them the autonomy and privacy to refine their practice, take risks, and receive supportive and critical feedback through coaching The course instructors employed Humanistic and Critical approaches to coaching that focused on building relationships, honoring lived experiences, and engaging in side-by-side and collaborative learning. Data from this peer-to-peer coaching project indicate that PTs were able to support each other in developing equity-focused lessons, in building their confidence and skill levels around teachers, and in seeing themselves as members of a strong and knowledgeable community of educators. Collectively, the findings of these four projects imply that teacher education courses offer fertile ground for field/coaching experiences to inform and support PTs’ student teaching engagements.

Authors

• Denise Davila, The University of Texas at Austin

• Kerry Alexander, The University of Texas at Austin

• Heather Dunham, The University of Texas at Austin

• Erica Holyoke, Keene State College

• Elizabeth Ries, The University of Texas at Austin

• Melissa Fogarty, Texas A&M University - College Station