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Learning to expand our communities to support coaching for equity: a collaboration of seven university-based teacher preparation programs

Elizabeth Ries (Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA)
Erica Steinitz Holyoke (Responsive Literacy Education, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA)
Heather Dunham (Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA) (Department of Education and Human Development, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, USA)
Murphy K. Young (Department of Teaching and Learning, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA)
Melissa Mosley Wetzel (Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA)
Criselda Garcia (College of Education and P16 Integration, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, Texas, USA)
Katherina Payne (Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA)
Annie Garrison Wilhelm (Department of Teaching and Learning, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, USA) (Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA)
Veronica L. Estrada (College of Education and P16 Integration, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, Texas, USA)
Alycia Maurer (Department of Education, Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas, USA)
Katie Trautman (Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA)

International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education

ISSN: 2046-6854

Article publication date: 14 December 2023

23

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. (2023), "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. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-10-2022-0087

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited

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