Coach and teacher alignment in the context of educational change

Abstract

Professional learning (PL) programs increasingly rely on the expertise of instructional coaches in supporting teacher learning and instructional change. To continue to improve the use of coaching as a lever of teacher PL, it is important to understand how both coaches and teachers understand and view their interactions in the context of such PL programs. Using survey data, we investigated middle school mathematics teacher and coach perceptions about the quality of their PL and the curriculum materials embedded within that PL, and considered individualized coaching approaches that may have influenced teachers’ perceptions. We found that coaches had more positive views about the quality of district-mandated professional learning and curriculum materials compared to teachers. However, we also found that teachers who had coaching support viewed their learning experiences and curriculum materials more positively than teachers who did not have a coach. Finally, we found that teachers’ perceptions about the quality of their coach related to their perceptions about the quality of their PL and curriculum, and that coaches’ reported emphasis on using curriculum materials in their coaching work was related to more negative teacher perceptions about the quality of that curriculum and associated PL. These results indicate meaningful differences in how teachers and coaches perceive of their shared work, suggest the importance of a coach’s perceived expertise and interpersonal relationship with their teachers, and point to challenges and complexities in how teachers and coaches can mutually adapt their shared work to achieve desired instructional change.