Elementary Instructional Coaches and Teachers: A Case Study

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of instructional coaches and teachers using the Results Coaching Global Framework with respect to outcomes of working together. The intent of an instructional coach is to collaborate with teachers one-on-one to build their instructional teaching skills. The study took place in a central Texas public school district with 10 elementary schools, four middle schools, and two comprehensive high schools. The school district has approximately 13,000 students and about 5,500 students are in elementary. Three instructional coaches and four teachers were interviewed. Three principals completed a questionnaire, and all participants were employed on elementary campuses. The three sets worked on the same campus to increase validity. Data were collected from the instructional coaches and teachers through a 60-minute semi-structured interview. Principals responded to a questionnaire with 22 questions. The interview data were transcribed, placed in a codebook, and then processed through two coding cycles to ensure that the main idea of their statement was captured. The data collected from the administrator surveys served to triangulate the data collected from the instructional coaches and the teachers. After analyzing data for themes from the participants’ responses, eight themes emerged. The themes were the coaching process, training experiences, experiences with coaching, coaching support, relationships with trust, other duties of IC, needed changes in coaching, and the perceived impact of coaching. Three major findings were as follows: First over time, the coaches modified their coaching process because the district leadership, along with the instructional coaches, noticed that the narrow scope of coaching through the Results Coaching Global model may not meet the needs of all the teachers and might result in slower instructional growth for the teachers and students. Second, teachers did not receive formal training about the Results Coaching Global Framework or how the instructional coaches could support the teachers with this specific process. Third, teachers, instructional coaches, and principals believed that the strong bond of trust between teachers and coaches was the critical ingredient for achieving success in the coaching process aimed at teacher growth. Several implications for practice and recommendations for future research.