Leadership coaching for principals: a national study

Surveys were sent to a large representative sample of public school principals in the United States asking if they had received leadership coaching. Comparison of responses to actual numbers of principals indicates that the sample represents the first national study of principal leadership coaching. Results indicate that approximately 50% of all principals have received or currently receive coaching. In general, this same percentage applies to most demographic categories. Respondents also rated components found to be of consequence to coaching success and these were compared with characteristics of the coaching relationship. Respondents overwhelmingly found coaching to be supportive and beneficial to them and believed it contributed to increasing student achievement. Recommendations include the expansion of leadership coaching programs and further study into specifics of the coaching relationship.     

Consequences of personal teaching metaphors for teacher identity and practice

Past research has clearly indicated that teachers’ metaphors can serve as a framework that moves our understanding of teaching forward by making more explicit the intuitive knowledge teachers hold about themselves, their classrooms, and their practice. Making explicit how metaphors uncover the understandings that guide the practices of in-service teachers, individually and collectively, can provide insight into the assumptions they hold about teaching and teaching practice. The purpose of this study was to explore how in-service teachers’ self-constructed metaphors revealed their perceptions of their roles, obligations, and assumptions about teaching and learning, and consider the implications of such exploration for teacher education and development. The four experienced teachers who participated in this study constructed personal teaching metaphors for which they provided an explanation. Analysis of the metaphors using positioning theory provided evidence that teaching metaphors capture the individual identity and specify the plotlines of teaching and the obligations, duties, and responsibilities of the teacher as well as the role of the teacher and others in the teacher’s practice. We found that each metaphor brought elements of identity and teaching practice together in unique and divergent ways. A subsequent cross-case analysis revealed common discourses of teaching: responsibility, nurturing, and caring, and teacher and student learning. Both the individual and cross-case analysis suggest the potential value of metaphor work for informing teacher education and professional development to advise teachers, teacher educators, school leaders, and policy makers.     

Coping with the crickets: a fusion autoethnography of silence,schooling, and the continuum of biracial identity formation

This study explores biracial identity development in the adolescent years through fusion autoethnography. Using an ecological model of biracial identity development, this study illustrates how family, peers, and school curricula validate and reject racial self-presentations. We pay specific attention to the different forms of silence (i.e. “crickets”) that teachers and peers deploy as tactics of rejection and how racially coded artifacts such as hip-hop culture and Black Liberation texts function as validations of racial self-presentations. Overall, this study helps researchers and practitioners to understand the fluidity of biracial and multiracial identity development as it relates to everyday school spaces and processes.     

Life on the borderlands: action research and clinical teacher education faculty

Seeking to soften the gap between clinical and tenure-track teacher education faculty, a year-long action research seminar was conducted. Using data from observation notes, interviews and a taped seminar session, the authors explore the seminar from its very rocky beginning to its conclusion. Drawing on the concept of ‘communities of practice’, the authors explore reasons for the hesitancy of the clinical faculty to share the results of their studies and their struggle to find legitimacy within the university.     

Let's lunch and learn: Professional knowledge sharing in teachers' lounges and other congregational spaces

Teachers' lounges are often thought as places that breed negativity. This two-year ethnography conducted in the United States explored teachers' interactions within teachers' lounges and congregational spaces. This article discusses that an important occurrence in these spaces, professional knowledge sharing, took place instead of perpetual negativity which is the common perception. I present suggestions for how teacher education programs can highlight the importance of congregational spaces, while providing a more complete account of them.     

A paradigm shift toward evidence-based clinical practice: Developing a performance assessment

The Clinical Practice Assessment System (CPAS), developed in response to teacher preparation program accreditation requirements, represents a paradigm shift of one university toward data-based decision-making in teacher education programs. The new assessment system is a scale aligned with INTASC Standards, which allows for observation and evaluation of teacher candidate performance over time to show growth from novice to high level proficiency. This article describes the creation of the CPAS and examines results from its implementation in early childhood, elementary, and secondary programs in both early and capstone clinical experiences. Three years of implementation experiences have informed decisions on supervisory practices, program offerings and requirements, alignment of course outcomes, and understanding of strengths and weaknesses of individual licensure programs.     

Exploring the interplay of cultural capital,habitus, and field in the life histories of two West African teacher candidates

This paper captures the life histories of two West African pre-service teachers pursuing their education in the United States. Based on a larger study examining the life histories of 45 undergraduate pre-service teachers, these narratives focus specifically on international student experiences in the US. Grounded in Bourdieu’s theory of habitus, capital, and field, the life histories of Bakar and Selma illustrate how their capital and habitus become contingent on the field(s) (i.e. sites, time, and agents within a specific context) in which they are situated. The narratives of Bakar and Selma captured their early educational experiences, teacher preparation practices, and future possibilities as they moved in and out of different fields where the exchange of capital occurred, which then led to restructuring and/or de-valuerization of certain habitus. The experiences of Bakar and Selma heighten our awareness of the capital and habitus deployed in a variety of contexts – fields – in the US and elsewhere. We conclude by incorporating discussion focused on working with international teacher candidates.     

Social and Emotional Learning in the Kindergarten Classroom: Evaluation of the Strong Start Curriculum

There has been increasing interest in the promotion of social and emotional learning in schools, and research has shown positive outcomes. However, relatively few studies have been conducted in kindergarten classrooms or considered the feasibility of kindergarten implementation. This study examined the effects of Strong Start on the social and emotional competence of 67 kindergarten students, using a time-series design. Four kindergarten teachers taught the ten Strong Start lessons in their classrooms. Results indicated gains in students’ prosocial behaviors and decreases in internalizing behaviors, as rated by teachers and parents. Implementation integrity and teachers’ ratings of social validity were high, suggesting the program’s feasibility and potential effectiveness in natural classroom settings. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

Novice teacher growth and personal models of mentoring: choosing compassion over inquiry

This article presents a model of mentoring which may be used as an analytic tool for reflecting on practices commonly employed in supporting beginning teachers. Eighteen mentors and 36 intern teachers whom they mentored were participants in the study. Analysis of data revealed three general patterns of mentoring—responsive, interactive, and directive—and eight dimensions of mentoring related to: (a) emotional availability; (b) levels of engagement; (c) degree of investment in mentoring relationships; and (d) the capacity for criticalness in their mentoring. Variability among mentors in their ways of enacting the three general mentoring patterns was accounted for by their individual preferences in the eight dimensions of mentoring. Cases representing each general pattern of mentoring are presented, and instances reflecting shifts in general mentoring patterns are explored. Implications for teacher educators who select, prepare, support, or serve as mentors are discussed.