title: Coaching and mentoring: a change agent to lead effective teacher development in schools
Creators: name: Oberholzer, Lizana
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2023

description: Abstract: The development of mentors and coaches play a key part in developing future teachers to the teaching profession; however, the development of these teacher educators is often framed within the constraints of the compliance regulations of national policies and courses rather than truly reflecting on the needs of teacher educators to develop their knowledge and skills to enable them to support future teachers well on their journey. Often the personal and professional learning needs of teacher educators are not fully factored into policy development, or if they are, they are broadly mentioned without any specific detail. Teacher Educators, such as mentors and coaches, are placed at the heart of retaining future teachers in England, through the Department of Education in England’s retention strategy via the Early Careers Framework. However, mentoring and coaching is mentioned scantly in the policy frameworks, and the development of teacher educators are provided with little guidance. This thesis carefully considered how the professional learning journey of teacher educators needed to be mapped out to equip them as future mentors. It will be paramount to the successful roll-out of the Early Careers Framework to embed strong and detailed practices to develop the professionals who need to support Early Careers Teachers on their journey. Understanding how these adult learners, in this case the teacher educators need to be developed, to grasp how to consider the needs of the Early Careers Teacher, will make a significant difference in the outcomes of new teachers. This thesis looks at the importance of learning transfer and self-directed learning in the professional development cycle for teacher educators, to provide them with the necessary knowledge, theoretical understanding, and skills to develop future teachers effectively. In the absence of clear guidance on how to develop mentors and coaches for their roles as Teacher Educators to support Early Careers Teachers, this study explored what the impact is of the development of a mentoring and coaching programme to support Teacher Educators in their roles. This mixed methods action research project tracked the learning journey of Teacher Educators across 3 learning stages to evaluate how they were progressing, what learning needs and gaps they had, and how to address these, as well as what the impact of their learning was on the outcomes of the Early Careers Teachers they worked with. The study explored through in-depth interviews and progress tracking, the learning journeys of both the Teacher Educators and Early Careers Teachers, to gain a detailed understanding of how to shape the learning opportunities for Teacher Educators to equip them well for the next stage of their work with new teachers. The study provides a unique contribution to knowledge in this field by considering how to shape the learning journey of the Teacher Educator supporting Early Careers Teachers, with the specific learning needs of the Teacher Educator and the Early Careers Teacher in mind. The thesis provides an account of the Teacher Educators’ professional learning and how their various learning needs should be considered in future. Core themes emerge, such as the importance of sustained practice, bespoke and differentiated support, and learners’ 3 engagement. The research highlights key considerations and recommendations which will in future have implications for theory and practice in relation to Teacher Educator development within schools and Higher Education Institutions.