Coaching practices: Building teacher capability to enhance continuity in the early years

Abstract

Continuity of learning and development for children transitioning from pre-compulsory to compulsory education remains challenging in many educational contexts. There is little evidence about the potential of coaching to build teacher capability as a strategy to enhance continuity for children. This article reports details of how a collective case study and the theory of practice architectures framed an investigation of coaching practices aimed at building teacher capability to address student continuity issues. The research endorses a situated (site ontological) approach to building teacher capability to enhance continuity in the early years. Findings identify how site-based conditions influenced (enabled and constrained) coaching practices and transitional continuity.