Time to AACT? Attuned Authentic Coaching for Teachers

Teacher coaching is an overarching and personalised approach which, through sustained dialogue and enhanced support from a coach, provides the teacher with an opportunity to reflect, gain clarity, make decisions and to respond in the context of their own practice and aligned with their purpose. AACT is based on cycles of engagement and participation enabling co-enquiry between the coach and the teacher.

In developing the foundations for AACT we are advocating pedagogical knowledge and practice based on two foundations: Authentic Instruction (Newmann and Wehlage, 1993) and Attuned Teaching (Gunning and Lofthouse, 2022). Newmann and Wehlage’s work on Authentic Instruction demonstrates the significance of five key principles for ‘learning which has meaning beyond the classroom’, these are:

• Learning activities which develop higher order thinking

• Depth of knowledge (rather than shallow coverage)

• Connectedness to the world beyond the classroom

• Substantive conversation allowing students to talk meaningfully about their learning

• Social support for learning based on mutual respect and high expectations

We also draw on work that I undertook with a CollectivED Fellow Cathy Gunning in which we developed a case for Attuned Teaching which has a foothold in trauma-informed and attachment aware teaching. We outline four key components for wellbeing and inclusion in learning, which we call the ABCD of Attuned Teaching:

• A - Adopt an anti-bias stance. Every child is unique. Every child is important and has the right to full time education.

• B - Build relationships which make a difference. Every child needs to feel welcome and be known in their school community. We build trust with children through our actions.

• C - Create safe enabling environments. Every child can flourish when they feel safe, and every child can learn.

• D - Deepen our understanding over time. Every child deserves teachers who keep learning.

It is the final piece of this jigsaw (D – deepen understanding over time) which motivates AACT. We aim for a coaching approach which is itself pedagogic and have used the authentic and attuned principles to develop coaching guidance which respects teachers as unique individuals working in complex and diverse settings. As such as conceptualised ACCT as relational support for professional learning through professional challenge fostered by substantive conversation, with the following key characteristics:

• adopt a non-hierarchical & anti-bias stance

• prioritise appreciative and affirming relationships

• ensure a safe & enabling environment

• encourage, support & deepen professional knowledge & understanding

• engage in creative & critical thinking, facilitate hypothesising & evaluating

• forge connections between experience & wider professional context

In practical terms this means that AACT starts with contracting and consent and agreed purpose to establish the relational support for professional learning. While the coaching may be offered as part of a wider school initiative, the choice to engage with it should rest with the teacher. The context might be whole-school, age phase or subject related, but the coaching focus should always be personalised, and details of coaching conversations should remain confidential.

As AACT is based on co-enquiry the coach acts in a way to support the teacher to develop their knowledge and understanding through provoking reflection, seeking out information to guide decision-making, facilitating planned changes, exploring existing and new evidence, acknowledging both tensions and opportunities, engaging with their own values, feeling less discomfort with dilemmas and recognising the ways that they can respond within their professional roles and using their expertise. This is achieved by fostering substantive conversation which creates safe space for and enables sense-making through higher order thinking. Coaching conversations are characterised by analysis of information, questions and provocations which lead to creative and critical thinking, synthesising, hypothesising and evaluating. These lay the foundations of effective future decision making.  These outcomes are shared by both the coach and teacher.

We propose an underpinning cycle of activity which is shown below following contracting and consent, whereby the coach and teacher explore practice together, plan together, put ideas into action and use this to gather evidence and gain insights, to allow new responses based on reviewing and sense-making. The co-enquiry coaching components will be adapted according to context, for example there may be value in classroom observation, use of video, opportunity to engage with new training or reading as suits the purpose.  Our experience suggests that three co-enquiry coaching cycles helps to deepen understanding and develop practice over time.

Attuned Authentic Coaching for Teachers is intended to offer an additional approach for individuals and organisations to adopt and adapt as suits their contexts.  We hope that in doing so we help to create supportive relationships between colleagues, provide teachers space to be valued, seen and heard, personalise professional learning and development and help teachers to explore research and make connections to practice. AACT is designed to scaffold reflection and enquiry, and to enable experimentation and evaluation. If we advocate for pedagogies which are both meaningful and attuned, why would we want less for teacher coaching? We could judge the value of AACT according to its contribution to supporting teachers to make autonomous, situated decisions and ensuring that teachers find their niche and utilise their talents in the profession.

The CollectivED AACT Co-Creation group members are Cathy Gunning, Asif Lorgat, Lucy Wood, Sue Webb, Neil Mullen, Emily Ray, Ann Litchfield, Tracy Edwards, Jess Mahdavi-Gladwell, Rachel Lofthouse. Further open access guidance and resources will be published later in 2024.