Learning to expand our communities to support coaching for equity: a collaboration of seven university-based teacher preparation programs
International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education
ISSN: 2046-6854
Article publication date: 14 December 2023
Issue publication date: 13 May 2024
Abstract
Purpose
There is an urgent need for teacher preparation programs to equip teachers to teach in innovative and transformative ways, meeting the needs of diverse learners. Coaching is an instrumental tool for supporting change and development, especially in contexts with decentralized teacher preparation guidelines.
Design/methodology/approach
This multicase study examines cross-institutional programmatic innovations for coaching teacher candidates (TCs) and centering equity using improvement science and equity coaching. The authors explore the networked improvement community’s (NIC’s) examination of problems of practice through plan–do–study–act cycles in three coaching contexts within and across seven institutions.
Findings
Qualitative methods revealed that adapting coaching protocols can center equity and build equity-focused practices. This work highlights revisions to coaching within and across teacher preparation programs (TPPs), which the authors hope inspires extending equity-centered coaching and improvement science to new contexts. This cross-case analysis revealed program innovations for coaches, digital technologies and alignment.
Practical implications
This study addresses ongoing challenges faced by TPPs in the United States, including TCs' understandings of equity in teaching and decentralized teacher preparation that results in varied and incongruent understandings about quality teaching. This study builds on previous scholarship that examines shifts in coaching practices by disrupting silos in TPPs as examined innovations.
Originality/value
The paper offers a unique view of cross-institutional collaboration in coaching to improve transformative teaching experiences in teacher preparation field experiences.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research is supported by a grant from the Charles Butt Foundation.
In addition to the named authors, many other contributors were active in the data analysis and ideas presented in this paper. The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Lucinda Juarez, Patsy Sosa-Sanchez, Samuel Brower, Melissa Fogarty, Denise Dávila, Erin Green, Kerry Alexander, Claire Collins and Ann Marie Wernick who were active members of the research group.
Citation
Ries, E., Holyoke, E.S., Dunham, H., Young, M.K., Mosley Wetzel, M., Garcia, C., Payne, K., Wilhelm, A.G., Estrada, V.L., Maurer, A. and Trautman, K. (2024), "Learning to expand our communities to support coaching for equity: a collaboration of seven university-based teacher preparation programs", International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 178-194. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-10-2022-0087
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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