Coach

Stoll, Fink, and Earl (2003) say that coaching can be a valuable support for schools, especially school leaders. Robertson (2004a and b) suggests a model of professional development in which leaders undertake coaching with a professional partner, working with them at the interface of theory and practice and developing theory in the process. The model she describes involves “shadowing and the observation of practice with reflective interviewing and feedback around set personal and professional goals” (2004b, page 44). In this model, it is important to maintain the principle of “coach as learner” and to build trust and understanding between the participants. The coach’s role is to help the leader critically reflect on his or her practice in order to make informed decisions about his or her own leadership. Responsibility for further leadership learning is in the leader’s hands. This means that both partners should be taught coaching skills and that they should discuss and negotiate the principles behind their coaching relationship.

Robertson (2004a and b) claims that coaching provides an outside perspective that helps leaders to discover and confront the discontinuity between their espoused values about how people learn best and their roles as leaders of their institutions and their actual theories-in-use. This process creates the possibility of social transformation.

Reflection on and clarification of educational platforms can bring a critical perspective to educational leadership theory development. Leaders are able to identify the principles upon which their leadership work is based – what they believe is important in the ways in which they work within their institutions. Coaching sets in place a structure that can provide leaders with support and opportunities for exercising considered, deliberated educational leadership as part of their daily practice. This should, then, also assist them to solve the dilemmas in their leadership practice and (if necessary) to change their practice.

Robertson, 2004b, page 46

By providing school leaders with the skills and experiences for discussing pedagogy and practice within a developing learning community, coaching empowers them to learn and improve as instructional leaders whose central focus is on making a difference for the students in their school.

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