Coaching foundation phase literacy teachers as leaders in a school in the Western Cape Province : a professional development strategy

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The South African education system needs literacy teachers with the capacity to leadinnovative and appropriate literacy instruction in schools. Schools can benefit from suitable continuous professional development strategies that have the potential to build the leadership capacity of literacy teachers to sustain literacy improvementefforts.Coaching has proven to be an effective development strategy in the business sector and in the field of sport. However, the field of coaching in the educational context is under-explored in research in South Africa. Coaching is a situated practice, which is aimed at the learning and development of individuals within a specific context.Coaching is an on-going professional development strategy for teachers and leaders as opposed to traditional one-shot professional development activities such as workshops or training sessions.There is a need for evidence-based research on alternative professional development strategies, such as coaching. In this research study the researcherargued that coaching has the potential to provide a more effective and sustainablecapacity-building strategy for the continuous professional development of teacher leaders. It argued further that the recognition of their own capacity as teacher leaders can empower teachers to take ownership of decision-making for on-going literacyimprovement in schools.The specific context for coaching in this study was the professional development of literacy teachers as leaders for the improvement of literacy teaching and learning. Inthe absence of a suitable coaching model, the Integrated Capacity Coaching modeland a coaching programme were purposefully designed by the researcher for the development of literacy teachers as leaders in this study. Cognitive coaching, peer coaching and coaching circles were incorporated as coaching methods in the coaching programme.This study was designed to determine what can be learnt from using coaching as a professional development strategy within the formal structures of the school and its current constraints. Findings from the data indicated a number of positive learning insights about coaching as a continuous professional development strategy to build internal leadership capacity for literacy improvement in schools. This study issignificant because the outcome of the study extended the existing body of knowledge and evidence-based research on coaching in the educational context.The implementation of these findings could lead to improvements in the nature andcharacteristics of future continuous professional development of literacy teachers as leaders to sustain literacy improvement in schools.The proposed model shows potential as a capacity-building coaching model for the education sector, but further research is needed to determine the impact of this coaching model and the coaching approach in different school contexts.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University