Leadership and Organizational Supports and Obstacles for Enacting Equity-Focused Mathematics Coaching Across Three District Contexts

• In Event: Leading and Supporting Equity-Oriented Practices in Schools and Districts

Abstract

Mathematics classrooms in which historically marginalized students excel feature teaching that supports students’ cultural and mathematical identities. Mathematics coaches can support teachers to enact equitable teaching practices through individualized, sustained work. However, school and district context can mediate the enactment of equity-focused coaching and therefore its effectiveness. This study seeks to understand what supports and obstacles coaches identify in enacting an equity-focused mathematics-specific coaching model across multiple school and district contexts, as well as how those contexts shape enactment of coaching activities. Drawing on interviews with mathematics coaches and district administrators, we identify leadership and organizational supports and constraints and find the importance that coaches’ roles, including their organizational locus, play in coaching enactment.

Authors

• Erica Litke, University of Delaware

• Jonee Wilson, University of Virginia

• Samantha Akridge, University of Delaware

• Heather C. Hill, Harvard University

• Destini N. Braxton, University of Virginia