2.  My PITP Written Reflection:

 

Listening to Hear: The Power of Stories in Collegial Coaching

 

Reflections on Collegial Coaching

 

Over the course of this class I spent a great deal of time contemplating different coaching “styles.”  I wanted someone to explain to me whether a good coach is didactic and instructional in nature, or whether a good coach takes an inquiry-based approach without offering “advice in disguise.”  As I watched videos of different approaches to coaching, I tried to decide which style I would make my own.

 

Last week after concluding my coaching session with my critical friend, I finally felt a sense of clarity about my own coaching “philosophy.”  Ultimately, a good coach engages in the midwifery of stories.  The book The Art of Coaching quotes writer Barry Lopez in my favorite chapter that addresses the importance of the story.  Lopez wrote, “Everything is held together with stories.  That is all that his holding us together, stories and compassion” (Aguilar, 2013, p. 152).  I understand now that a strong coach enters the conversation with genuine curiosity, without making assumptions, and with the desire to collect and understand stories in order to bring to surface new perspectives and new understandings. 

 

That being said, I do believe that there is a place for opinions and guidance in the coaching context, but it must occur within the realm of the stories that unfold.  Stories are powerful because they help us to really understand how someone perceives their world.  If we don’t understand as coaches how a teacher makes sense of her experience (which is colored by her background, her own experiences as a student, and her belief systems), we can’t be effective in the role of the coach.  If we use stories as a medium to really relate to the teacher, we are then able to ask simple, powerful questions that might help the teacher explore, frame, and re-frame his thinking.

 

When it comes to an instructional approach versus an “inquiry-based” approach, I feel strongly now that it just depends.  If there is strong rapport and trust established, I feel more comfortable being open about my own wonderings and concerns.  If I’ve taken the time to ask questions from a place of genuine, non-judgmental curiosity, and if I’ve heard many of the teacher’s stories, I might feel more comfortable engaging in a line of questioning that could guide the teacher toward a different perspective.  In his article “It’s About the Questions,” Ronald Bearwald writes, “Michelangelo once noted that a statue resides inside every block of marble, and it was his challenge to find it. Similarly, it is the coach's role to find the effective educator and leader inside every mentee “ (Bearwald, 2011, p.1).  I love Bearwald’s message.  Leadership and coaching is not about judging, fixing, or finding fault – it’s about serving, guiding, and truly believing in the capacity of the mentee.  If we don’t enter the conversation with this mentality, what’s the point?

 

My experience being coached by my critical friend Marci helped to shape some of these beliefs about coaching.  Marci was kind, compassionate, and genuine during our coaching interaction.  She started by asking me very broad, open-ended questions about my video (which depicts me facilitating a workshop with the Inclusion Specialists).  Marci was very positive and complimentary of my work, which put me at ease, made me feel confident and comfortable, and then allowed me to feel okay about being vulnerable in front of her.  And when I shared with Marci that I was worried I’d taken on way too much content for a short amount of time, she openly agreed, but she did so in a way that made me feel safe because we had already established that the workshop wasn’t a total flop.  I aspire to assume Marci’s centered, kind, open coaching demeanor, and I appreciated how she made me experience first-hand the importance of feeling celebrated by the person who is coaching you.

 

I further defined my coaching philosophy through my experience coaching Marci.  I approached the conversation with the intention of collecting stories, being open, allowing Marci to guide our focus.  I aspired to use the lens of “inquiry” described in The Art of Coaching to frame our discussion.  This lens assumes that “…the way we pose the question determines the answer” and “…the questions we ask are as important as the answers we find” (Aguilar, 2013, p.51).  In her video, Marci coaches a teacher who was having a conflict with a new teacher.  The most successful inquiry moments occurred when I asked really open-ended questions with the intention of hearing stories.  At 4:11, I asked, “What were you hoping the outcome of the conversation with her would be?”  And Marci told me several stories about the teacher’s personality that helped me to understand the nature of the issue on a much deeper level.  At 5:52 I asked, “What do you think the crux of their conflict is?” and this lead to a story about how Marci mediated a conversation between the new teacher and a group of teachers in her living room at home, which she perceived to be a break-through moment.  This story really helped me to understand that Marci had already done a lot of thoughtful work to address the issue.  If I hadn’t heard this story, I might have been too focused on trying to solve a very narrow element of the conflict between the teachers, and I would have missed an opportunity to understand how nuanced the conflict is and how much Marci had already done in attempt to resolve it.

 

There were also some moments during my coaching of Marci that made me cringe, and taught me a lot about what I don’t want to do as a coach.  At minute 2:28 we were really just getting started, and Marci made herself vulnerable by sharing her worry that she appeared to be biased in the conversation.  In response I asked, “Is this a concern isolated to that particular interaction, or is it a concern you have about your coaching on a broader level?”  What?!  Instead of acknowledging that Marci revealed something that was probably uncomfortable to admit, and working to unpack and understand it, I instead asked if this is a pervasive problem that she is worried about with all teachers, all the time!  I am not sure what I was thinking in the moment – I think I was taken off guard that Marci jumped-in with me so quickly to explore her concerns.  In the future, if a teacher is openly willing to explore something they are worried about, I want to keep the conversation focused on the concern in isolation, and not ask questions that inflate the concern to a broader level.

 

At minute 6:10 Marci shared a little about the new teacher’s behavior, and I exclaimed, “So you sort of do agree with her!”  I feel conflicted about my outburst here.  On one hand, I did want Marci to see that she was revealing a bias.  On the other hand, the way that I went about doing so was very direct.  During my video consultancy protocol my group helped me realize that I missed an opportunity to support Marci in unpacking her feelings of bias on a deeper level.  I realized during my group’s discussion that by revealing a bias, Marci was really sharing her doubts about the new teacher.  I wish that I’d taken advantage of the opportunity to explore that with Marci more – instead of trying to “solve” the conflict between the teachers, what if we had examined whether it was even possible to solve it?  What if we had explored whether Marci’s bias toward the new teacher was actually telling her something about whether or not he was even a good fit for the school?

 

At minute 9:42, I said, “I’m wondering if that teacher or those teachers have a sense that like, you are sort of in their camp with them.”  This again was a very direct “wondering.”  In my debrief with Marci I asked her if it felt too direct, too presumptuous, and she shared that it felt okay to her given that she had already put that concern on the table for us to discuss.  My take-away here is that because I have a tendency to be very direct about my “wonderings” and my desire to get to the “root” of the issue, it’s important that I ask myself two questions:  First, have I collected enough stories to have developed an in-depth understanding of the issue(s) and the greater context?  Second, do I know this person well enough to understand if they are comfortable with me being more direct in our interaction?

 

I want to be a coach who approaches these conversations with empathy and openness.  I want the person I am coaching to walk away from our conversation feeling uplifted, celebrated, and supported.  I want to be incredibly skilled at collecting stories so that I achieve an in-depth, “big picture” perspective.  I want to adapt my coaching style to the person I’m working with, knowing when a more direct, instructional approach will be welcomed, and sensing when it’s my role simply to ask really good, thoughtful, powerful questions.  Most importantly, I want to approach the conversations from a place of non-judgment and with a genuine belief that inside the teacher is a skilled, capable, talented educator.

 

Reflections on the Role of School Leader as Instructional Coach

 

When I think about my role as an instructional coach, my first area of focus includes both Classroom Teachers and Inclusion Specialists.  Full-Inclusion starts with teaching: it starts with curriculum and project design.  My hope is to support more collegial conversations between Inclusion Specialists and Classroom Teachers with the goal of increasing dialogue and collaboration.  I think that asking Inclusion Specialists to “coach” Classroom Teachers is problematic because it could fuel a tense and potentially conflicted dynamic.  Instead, I would like to support an increase in dialogue so that Classroom Teachers and Inclusion Specialists are sitting on the same side of the table from the onset of project development to co-design learning experiences for all students.  I think this is the most powerful means of improving student learning across our schools.

 

My second area of focus as an instructional coach is to support the Inclusion Specialists with their teaching and IEP Meeting facilitation.  I would like to find more opportunities to observe them and give feedback (this is not currently happening in my practice). When I spoke to Robert Kuhl about his coaching practice, he described his current approach: he takes weekly video (5-10 minute clips) of teachers, and then he asks teachers to “pick a clip” and come debrief it with him during their prep period.  The medium of video grounds and focuses the debrief conversations.  Robert gave the example of how different it is to say, “let’s watch from minute 3:15-4:15 – which students did you call on?”  instead of saying, “I noticed that you called on a lot of boys.“  I would love to emulate what Robert is doing with his teachers, and to take short videos of Inclusion Specialists working with small groups, co-teaching lessons, or facilitating IEP meetings, and then debrief these videos together.  Robert shared that he keeps the debrief informal and light, and he asks: What do you notice?   What do you wonder?  What are you taking away? 

 

I think perhaps the missing element of the video debrief that Robert described is accountability.  I appreciate the emphasis on accountability that I read about in chapter two of Leverage Leadership.  Paul Bambrick-Santoyo writes about “direct accountability” and recommends that leaders “create systems to ensure feedback translates to practice” (p. 65).  I feel strongly that accountability is critical, and I also agree with Bambrick-Santoyo that “we learn best when we can focus on one piece of feedback at a time.  Giving less feedback, more often, maximizes teacher development” (p. 70).  I would like to develop a system where I meet regularly with the Inclusion Specialists to identify small, manageable action plans.  When we next meet, we can refer to our notes from the previous meeting to ground the conversation and ensure accountability. 

 

My third area of focus as an instructional leader is to facilitate collegial coaching among the Inclusion Specialists as part of our adult learning community.  The Edutopia piece titled “Teacher Development Research: Keys to Educator Success” outlines four elements of a Professional Learning Community: successful collaboration, focus on student learning, continuous teacher learning, and teacher authority (Vega, 2013, p.4).  I think that collegial coaching provides a forum that incorporates all four of these elements with a particular focus on “successful collaboration.”   Robert and I brainstormed what collegial coaching among the Inclusion Specialists this might look like.  I would like to pair the Inclusion Specialists in critical friend groups (of their own choosing) and have each partnership visit each other’s school sites.  Each Inclusion Specialist would identify a particular focus question for the visit (ie, how are academic coaches utilized?  Or, how do students prepare for IEP meetings?)  After visiting each others’ programs, the Inclusion Specialists would engage in coaching conversations centered around what they noticed during their visits to each others’ programs.  These plans will be in service of our goal to create a rich, collaborative adult learning community.

 

I have noticed a shift in my perception of myself as a leader over the last weeks.  I now constantly notice opportunities to “coach” during conversation with the Inclusion Specialists, and I feel so much better equipped to engage in these conversations in a way that feels safe, constructive, and impactful.

 

 

 

References

 

Aguilar, E. (2013) Effective Strategies for School Transformation.  San Francisco:

       Jossey-Bass.

 

Bambrick-Santoyo, P. & Lamov, D. (2012).  Leverage Leadership.  San Francisco:

       Jossey-Bass.

 

Bearwald, R.  (October 2011) All About the Questions.  ACSD Volume 69, Number 2,

       p.74-77

 

Vega, V.  (January 3, 2013)  Teacher Development Research: Keys to Educator

       Success.  Edutopia retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/teacher-development-research-keys-success.