(This topic first appeared in my column on TIE Online)
We know instructional coaching is a complex role.
As discussed on this podcast many times, it’s an informal leadership position that requires that coaches balance being a peer, while often being perceived as a leader. This is certainly not easy work, and often requires a new set of skills when moving into an instructional coaching role.
It’s complex in all settings, of course, and many of the elements I highlight in this post may also be present in other contexts.
However, when we are working in international schools, there is often even more complexity involved in the role, which may go unrecognized by school leaders, or even coaches themselves because this complexity is our “normal.”
At the recent EARCOS teachers conference, we unpacked some of those complexities in one of my sessions.
In our conversation, we identified five key factors that make instructional coaching highly complex in our international school setting – and I’m going to share those 5 with you today!
As you’re listening or reading, I’d love to hear if these resonate with you – or if you have more to add! Please leave a comment on the video if you’re watching on YouTube, or on the show notes if you’re listening to the podcast.
Essential for Coaches and Leaders to Understand
I’m sharing this today because it is so essential for both coaches and school leaders to understand the inherent potential challenges to build a sustainable coaching culture, particularly in an international school context.
We know trends tend to come and go in schools in general, and the swing between implementation and discarding seems to go very fast in an international school setting. In fact, in the recent AAICIS landscape survey of international schools, many respondents noted that instructional coaching is new to their international school experience – but most of us on the AAICIS team have been coaching in international schools for so long (decades) that we were part of the last trend toward instructional coaching, watched the trend swing away, and now it seems to be back again.
Ultimately, if we believe in the power of instructional coaching – for so many different reasons: improving student learning, building a sense of belonging in schools, developing a culture of coaching to foster agency – we need to know why we have these huge swings and trends.
If we want to ensure coaching is sustainable over time, we need to understand all the different layers that make that sustainability so challenging.
And that’s what I’m going to share today!
EXPLORE THE THRIVE MODEL
Are you working on building a coaching culture in your school setting?
To make coaching both sustainable and successful, you need clarity, consistency, and community.
Unfortunately, most schools are missing at least one! Is yours?
Use the Thrive Model to find out!
Developed after working with hundreds of coaches and leaders in international schools around the world, the Thrive Model incorporates both the macro view of a coaching program, and the micro view of a coaches practice, to bring together the three essential elements to make coaching both sustainable and successful.
Explore all of our resources about the Thrive Model at edurolearning.com/thrive
Foundational Complexities of Instructional Coaching
First I want to quickly acknowledge the foundational complexities in an instructional coaching role (which I talk about all the time over on Instagram @edurolearning – come join the conversation!)
Instructional coaches are expected to
- lead without being a formal leader;
- see the big picture, often without having all the puzzle pieces;
- inspire your colleagues without having a class of your own; and
- be the connection between teachers and leaders, without really being part of either team.
So the job is complex by design (check out these other episodes of #coachbetter where I explore these complexities due to the informal leadership aspects of the role).
The Complexities of Instructional Coaching in an International School Context
But then stepping into an international school environment, you find even more complexity
1: Consistent Teacher Turnover
For most international schools there is a certain percentage of teacher turnover every year. While we have many procedures to help make these transitions as smooth as possible for both new and returning teachers, the reality is that we all have to build relationships year after year.
Instructional coaching relationships require vulnerability and trust, and this takes time – sometimes even longer than just one school year. When we have consistent teacher turnover, it can feel like we’re starting from scratch building those relationships every year. This means that we can begin developing a coaching relationship, only to find that the teacher we’re working with is leaving at the end of the year. Or we can start working with a team but find that work stalls when many of the team members leave. The relationships that we built to get us to that level, now need to be built again, with new colleagues the following year. We may also find that our coaching partners are struggling with the same challenge. While the returning teacher may have a history of working with a coach, they may know that new teachers will take time to understand the value of coaching, which can slow down coaching at the team level.
When our work is so dependent on relationships and when we have consistent teacher turnover year-after-year, we can find that has a huge impact on how many coaching partners we are able to work with. We may find ourselves spending more time building relationships than engaging in deep coaching cycles, especially when the school may not have a strong coaching culture, yet (please see more about this in point four and five).
2: An Extremely Diverse School Community
We know we are working with colleagues, students, parents, and leaders who may have completely different worldviews, training, and perceptions of almost everything about teaching and learning, including the concept of coaching and being coached.
When we consider the visibility of instructional coaching, including teachers being vulnerable to learning in front of other colleagues or their students, we also need to keep in mind the varying perception that others may have about this kind of experience. While we may expect that everyone hired by the school has an understanding of the vision of the school, that may not always be the case.
We may need to:
- unpack the rationale for our work with a variety of stakeholder groups within the school,
- discuss and understand different perceptions about our work,
- clarify and validate the way that our work aligns with the vision and mission of the school.
It is likely that instructional coaches in international schools need to feel confident having these kinds of conversations on a daily basis and at different levels so that we can meet the needs of all stakeholders in understanding the value and purpose of coaching.
We may also need to consider that instructional coaching may need to look different in different cultural settings. Being able to adapt for the needs of our coaching partners and understand and navigate the cultural norms around professional growth, vulnerability, and openness to learning within and between all stakeholders is another element of complexity in an international school setting.
3: Host Country Culture Expectations
Along with the multi-cultural environment of our schools, we are also located within a host country culture, which may be very different from the cultural norms of the international school. In some schools, staying after school to work is the norm. In others, the workday ends at the end of the school day. In some schools, work-life balance is highly prized and prioritized. In others, the focus is on building professional capacity, even if that means working longer days. When teachers move from country to country, it can be a challenge to adapt to new host country expectations.
For instructional coaches, when we are working towards building buy-in and ownership over the coaching process, we may not always take into consideration host country culture expectations and how that may impact our work process. Navigating those norms and managing the “lifestyle experiences” of living in a different culture adds a layer of complexity to how we work.
4: Lack of Structural Support
International schools are usually an independent organization without national, regional, or local infrastructure, funding, or support. For the most part, they don’t have larger districts or governmental structures providing guidance, clarifying expectations, or defining outcomes, aside from global or regional accrediting bodies. Although this provides a large amount of professional freedom for an individual school, it often means that each international school defines programs, procedures, and structures independently.
This freedom provides both a benefit and a challenge to international schools. Each school must articulate and define both the purpose and implementation of an instructional coaching program, as well as the support needed to make the program successful and sustainable, rather than being able to rely on a larger organization to provide that structure.
This means that defining, building, implementing and sustaining an instructional coaching program is dependent on the perceived needs or value of instructional coaching by the current school leadership – and much like point one above, when school leaders transition, the process of building understanding around coaching needs to begin again.
Combined with all of the other factors above, this is why clarity around the definition, purpose, and process of instructional coaching, in alignment with the school’s vision and mission is so essential. It can be easy to assume that hiring coaches is enough to build a coaching program, but developing a coaching culture requires structural support throughout the school. Ensuring that there is time, energy, and funds to devote to the development and sustainability of a coaching program requires focus and intentionality. When international schools are very dependent on enrollment for their own sustainability, it may become challenging to devote the needed resources to structural support for instructional coaching.
5: Lack of Consistency
Because each international school is its own institution (aside from those that are part of a larger body), it’s unrealistic to expect any consistency in definition or implementation of the role of instructional coach from one school to the next (this is why there was a need for the Association for the Advancement of Instructional Coaching in International Schools!)
This means that as teachers and leaders move from school to school, they may be bringing different understandings of instructional coaching – both positive and negative – from their previous experiences. Because language around coaching is often vague and there can be an assumption that we are all talking about the same thing, it may not even be clear that we do not have a shared understanding until we are implementing the work. Given that there is very little research or data on instructional coaching specifically in international schools, there is also very little that we can base our decisions on, aside from the personal experience of those involved.
The lack of consistency between schools affects coaching and coaches even in just one school, in one school year. As teachers and leaders come and go, the beliefs, understandings, and implementation processes need to be revisited and redefined, again and again. In many cases, instructional coaches are the only members of staff with the depth of knowledge and advocacy needed to take on this role.
This often means instructional coaches are left to do the work of defining coaching and the role of a coach after they have been hired to implement the role – and again every time they move to a new school, or when their leadership changes. This is a layer of pressure and leadership expectations often placed on individual coaches (or teams of coaches) without realization from school leadership.
Watch the Video
Navigating the Complexity of Instructional Coaching in International Schools
Given that instructional coaching is already a complex position, with many informal leadership responsibilities, these additional layers of complexity inherent in the international school context add another dimension. This means that international school instructional coaches need to deeply understand the ways to advocate for, plan, and implement a successful coaching program – whether you’re staying in your current school – and perhaps even more so if you’re moving into a new school!
If this is something you’ve been thinking about, we can support you!
I have so many clients that have moved to a new school this year and despite expecting that they would have a lot of work to do to build the foundations of a coaching culture, they are shocked at how far “back” they have to work.
Building the foundations of a coaching culture begins with Clarity – and if you’ve been watching or listening to #coachbetter for a whiile now, you know that’s the first phase of the Thrive Model – which was specifically designed based on all of my experience (and my clients) in international schools.
If you’re ready to dig deeper into the Thrive Model, make sure to access all of our free resources on our website. You’ll find a free webinar, a downloadable overview of the mode and our coaching program evaluation to see where you (or your program) has opportunities for growth.
Find it all at https://edurolearning.com/thrive
And, if you discover that you need support as you go through the process, please join us for the next cohort of The Coach Certificate and Mentorship Program.
In The Coach we’ll support you in developing your coaching practice and program following the Thrive Model.
Find out more about the coach on our website at edurolearning.com/coach
As you may already know, registration opens only once a year – so make sure you get on the waiting list so you’re the first to know when registration opens again!
Get all the details, and join the waitlist, at edurolearning.com/coach
Free Workshops for Instructional Coaches
If you’re ready to keep learning, try one of our FREE workshops where you’ll be able to dig deeper into the concepts in this post, and get a peek at all of our courses for coaches.
We have workshops (and courses) to support coaches at every stage of their career: from new and aspiring coaches making the move from classroom to coach; to current coaches ready to be more intentional and strategic in their practice; to established coaches leveraging their coaching experience to lead.
You can them all on our coachbetter website at coachbetter.tv/workshops
If you’re curious right now, you have questions, please reach out. You can leave a comment below, join our #coachbetter Facebook group, or find us on social media at Eduro Learning and send me a DM. I’d love to support you on your coaching journey. See you next time!
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