Developing a group coaching practice targeting school leaders: an action research project with a critical friend

Abstract

There are various forms of coaching in the field of education that promote professional development. This article reports on an action research project exploring school leadership coaching, demonstrating how a group coaching practice is developed when involving groups of coaches and leadership groups. The coaches, organized into two coaching teams, develop their coaching practice through reflective conversations with a critical friend, the researcher. Developing a new practice requires changing the conditions that prefigure the practice and the practice architectures or the arrangements that enable or constrain the practice. Drawing on related research on group coaching, the theory of practice architectures, and data from the two-year long action research project, the findings show how a group coaching practice involving several coaches and leaders develops through three phases. In each phase, the relationships either within or between the two groups are addressed. The findings also illustrate how collaboration between a researcher and the practitioners can promote professional learning and capacity building when new practices are being developed.