I'm delighted to share that my on-going research on the use of coaching protocols to assist school principals in enhancing their instructional leadership has just been published in the online journal, Qualitative Research in Education. Congratulations and thanks to my co-authors, Janet Hurt, associate superintendent for the Logan County Schools; Beckie Stobaugh, assistant professor in WKU's School of Teacher Education; and my advisor and mentor John Keedy, University of Louisville. You can read full text of the article here.
This study built on research Janet and I initiated in our doctoral dissertations on theories of practice, which are mental maps people use to solve problems. The concept was first articulated by Chris Argyris and Donald Schön, who argued that by becoming more aware of the underlying (often subconscious) assumptions we bring to our problem solving, we can gradually develop more effective action strategies in the workplace.
In my dissertation, I used the theories of practice model to "map" the instructional leadership strategies of effective school principals. But what I discovered is that even highly effective school leaders had difficulty reflecting on their assumptions and action strategies. I concluded that without some mechanism to help them do that, most principals would continue to just react to problems in a trial-and-error sort of way that prevented them from understanding how their own thinking about the problem might be hindering their efforts to find an effective solution.
In response, my co-authors and I developed a coaching protocol that could help principals become more self-reflective about their instructional leadership. Inspired by the growing body of literature on teacher coaching, we used theories of practice to help principals develop a plan for assisting a teacher who was struggling to improve his/her instruction. Using a qualitative research approach, we met with these principals several times throughout a single school year, documenting their efforts to support the teacher's improvement and creating opportunities for the principals to reflect on their own thinking and behavior and modify their own strategies as a result.
While each of the four principals had varying results in their efforts to help the teacher improve (two of the four targeted teachers were non-renewed at the end of the year), all the principals reported positive perceptions of the protocol, and found it greatly enhanced their self-awareness as leaders. The study documented a dramatic change in one principal in particular, who used her efforts with her target teacher to launch a more concerted, school-wide initiative for instructional improvement.
In a subsequent study, I've been duplicating the protocol described here but with all the principals in one single district, adding the element of group coaching. This study will explore how this cohort model and collaborative group coaching can enhance or hinder the process and how it influences the principals' overall instructional leadership. I'll be sharing tentative results of this study with co-author Tom Stewart of Austin Peay State University and representatives from the Monroe County Schools at the upcoming AdvancEd Innovation Summit in Lexington, November 29-30.
We hope to continue this line of research, applying the theory of practice framework in a wider array of school contexts and with other administrative roles like superintendents.
To read more about the conceptual framework for the study, go here. Contact me for more information about this study and related research.
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