The NIUSI-LeadScape Principal Coaching Guide Elaine Mulligan January 21, 2009

Systemic Change Framework We know that in order to enact effective change within educational systems, one must be aware of the many factors at the practitioner, school, district, and state level that influence practice.

How do we get high quality practice – at the leadership level and at the practitioner level? In the NIUSI-LeadScape project, we work directly with school principals to support the development and sustainability of inclusive practices for all students. We’re focusing on the elements of the educational system at the school and professional level, the ones closest to the student and with the most direct impact on daily practice. How do we embed the understandings and behaviors that produce high quality inclusive practices at these levels?

Essential Variables for Leading Inclusive Schools Vision + Skills + Incentives + Resources + Action Plan = CHANGE   ______ + Skills + Incentives + Resources + Action Plan = CONFUSION Vision + ______ + Incentives + Resources + Action Plan = ANXIETY Vision + Skills + _________ + Resources + Action Plan = RESISTANCE Vision + Skills + Incentives + __________ + Action Plan = FRUSTRATION Vision + Skills + Incentives + Resources + ___________ = TREADMILL You may remember this chart from our first Institute in the summer of 2007. We discussed the factors that inclusive school leaders must address in order to effect change. If any one of these factors is missing, your efforts will not produce change. Without vision, there will be confusion; without skills, there’s anxiety; without incentives, resistance; without resources, frustration (budget cuts, anyone?); and without an action plan, you won’t move forward. These are a lot of factors for a school leader to balance.

Processes for developing high quality, inclusive practices You help develop the internal scripts to interpret, reflect, and continuously improve practice You provide or connect staff to resources to build their repertoire of skills (how to) The ways you establish for working together Your vision for inclusive practices Vision Frameworks for Acting Mediated Experience Technical Assistance The components that are necessary to develop inclusive practices in your school include vision, frameworks, technical assistance, and mediating experiences. As the school leader, YOU create the vision for what your school’s practices will be to include all students. You lead your staff to establish the frameworks for how you will work together (i.e., teaming, meeting structures, shared planning, and even the language that you use together). Every day you provide Technical Assistance to your teachers in helping them deal with problems that arise and transferring skills. You also mediate the experiences of your teachers by talking with them, coaching them.

Coaching: An Integral Part of the School Improvement Process Mediated Experience Coaching: An Integral Part of the School Improvement Process Ways of Doing Ways of Being Collaborative Responsive Transformational Inclusive Coaching is a tool that is used in schools in a variety of ways in order to build capacity and continually improve practice. It’s a way to mediate understandings and beliefs (“ways of being”) in order to influence daily activities and interactions (“ways of doing”). This is something that’s often done with a technical focus by Literacy or Curriculum coaches. For school improvement, coaching is crucial to creating substantive change, because systemic change is complex and elusive. School improvement is a long-term, complex process, and ongoing reflection is an important activity for the principal to be able to review progress, identify new areas of focus, and ensure that efforts are strategic and purposeful. Administrative demands don’t often allow time and support structures to support this type of reflection. Leaders also need support for the difficult work that they do; it’s difficult to deal with the wide variety of issues that must be addressed in the school improvement process without a process for ongoing reflection and analysis. Coaching provides a designated time and space to synthesize learning and to strategize the most effective ways to implement learning to achieve the principal’s individual desired outcomes.

Mental models Scripts Problem Solving Coaching Coaching = Mental models and scripts for guiding action and solving problems. The purpose of coaching is to provide new ways of thinking about practice so that the coachee responds in new ways to dilemmas of practice as they occur. Rather than simply a vehicle for solving problems with or FOR a coachee, NIUSI-LeadScape coaching begins with the understanding that the goal is to help change ingrained patterns of thinking in order to be able to approach problems of practice in new and more effective ways. This is a process of COGNITIVE RESTRUCTURING – working together to develop new mental models and internal scripts to use when issues arise.

Cognitive When we coach, we are working to change thinking patterns so that people respond differently when problems of practice arise. The coach works with the coachee to develop internal scripts that frame events and problems in new ways in order to change daily practices. NIUSI-LeadScape coaching for inclusive practices is not just coaching in the traditional sense of GIVING answers to problems, it involves teaching new ways of thinking, and creating mental models so that the coachee can see things differently in daily interactions. We are consciously working to CHANGE the way people respond to situations in their everyday practice.

Coach Coachee ThirdSpace ThirdSpace In addition to being cognitively based, NIUSI-LeadScape coaching is culturally responsive: It includes the acknowledgement of each person’s unique frame of reference and a negotiated suspension of perspectives. This creates a ThirdSpace that allows both perspectives to integrate to form a new perspective together. In order to be able to develop ThirdSpace, three main principles must be maintained: Respect, Reciprocity, and Responsiveness. We must Respect the identity of others – recognize boundaries and allow differences to be accepted. We must practice Reciprocity by valuing each person in an interaction as equal with the understanding that one point of view need not dominate or exclude a diverse point of view – there is no need to force an “either-or” choice. We must practice Responsiveness by integrating strengths of diverse identities to create greater and more inclusive options. ThirdSpace focuses on creatively reframing into paradoxes the contradictions encountered as diverse cultures come into contact with each other. Rather than labeling perceptions as “right” or “wrong,” ThirdSpace promotes the holding of two or more divergent and even seemingly contradictory views in one mind at the same time WITHOUT forcing a choice between them. We will explore this concept more thoroughly later this morning.

Inclusive Outcomes The ultimate goal of NIUSI-LeadScape coaching is always to achieve inclusive outcomes for all of our students. Some of the WAYS that we might achieve those outcomes are by confronting and embracing differences through : Co-teaching Universal Designs for Learning, Differentiated Instruction, and the Blurring of Traditional Roles.

NIUSI-LeadScape Coaching Process Cognitive Coaching Culturally Responsive Coaching NIUSI-LeadScape Coaching for Inclusive Practices The NIUSI-LeadScape coaching model explicitly targets the desired outcome of inclusive school practices. So, in effect, the broad concept of coaching has been refined to utilize the practice of cognitive coaching through a culturally responsive lens in order to achieve the desired outcome of inclusive schools

Cognitive Cultural Inclusive How is this like what I’m already doing? How is this different from what I’m currently doing? Cognitive Cultural Inclusive Let’s stop for a few minutes to examine how this model relates to the practices you have in place already in working with teachers. You have a handout with this table on it. Take a few minutes to think about the main components that we’ve just introduced: cognitive reframing, cultural integration, inclusive outcomes. Write down the ways that you think this is already like what you’re doing in each of these areas and the ways that this is different from your current practice.

NOT Just Problem Solving! Vision Frameworks for Acting Mediated Experience Technical Assistance   An aside about Technical Assistance: The principal is the chief “problem solver” of the school, and can often so get caught up in responding to immediate needs that systemic, long-term planning and reflection activities are left unattended. When a principal is coaching a teacher, often the teacher’s immediate classroom management needs preclude spending time on exploring the teacher’s identity and teaching philosophy. Coaching sessions should be designed to address the individual beliefs and goals of the coachee, the context of the school or classroom, and ways in which the classroom’s and school’s policies and practices are designed to be equitable for all students. A NIUSI-LeadScape coach can easily get drawn into technical problem-solving conversations with a coachee and put off the deeper critical reflection that is crucial to an effective coaching relationship. Be mindful of that danger when you’re planning your coaching – when you help a coachee change thinking patterns, learn to broaden perspectives to be culturally responsive, and develop a real understanding of inclusive practices, you are giving HER the tools to solve technical problems of practice.

The Coaching Process Assess through Observation Establish Improvement Goals Set frequent and consistent times for Coaching Coaching for Reflection, Insight, Developing Scripts and Change in Practice Mediate Experience and Knowledge-building The Coaching Process The cycle of coaching includes observation of context, of interaction in a variety of situations, in classroom, in meetings during unstructured time, both you and the teacher assess what kinds of things are going on in the classroom and how the teacher is interacting with students; then your work together to develop goals for the person you’re coaching – example, engaging with a team teaching partner in deep conversations about what inclusion means in their classroom; you also need to maintain a fairly consistent coaching schedule (so you’re not just responding to crises) to be able to both attend to needs that arise and provide ongoing support to struggling teachers; and then you can begin to engage in facilitating reflection, creating a ThirdSpace, developing insight into behaviors and interactions, reframing experiences from an inclusive perspective, practicing new mental scripts for the teacher to use in future interactions; mediating the teacher’s understandings and knowledge based on the new insights and scripts you’ve developed together, and finally following through on coaching sessions by continually observing, revisiting goals in order to monitor progress and move forward.

Coach Coachee ThirdSpace Thirdspace – What it looks like Assess through Observation Establish Improvement Goals Set frequent and consistent times for Coaching Coaching for Reflection, Insight, Developing Scripts and Change in Practice Mediate Experience and Knowledge-building Coach Coachee ThirdSpace ThirdSpace is a creative process of restructuring that draws selectively and strategically from the two opposing viewpoints to open new alternatives. We may come with a worldview in which we are in control of much of our environment -- some people may come with a relational view in which every interaction is dependent on the many players involved. As a NIUSI-LeadScape coach, we must be aware of and acknowledge our own identities and be able to TRANSCEND them in order to open up new perspectives with coachees. Let’s see an example of what it looks like to create a ThirdSpace in a coaching situation. (Elizabeth and Dorothy)

Components of a Coaching Conversation Engage Create ThirdSpace Develop Insights Reframe Practice Scripts Set Goals Assess through Observation Establish Improvement Goals Set frequent and consistent times for Coaching Coaching for Reflection, Insight, Developing Scripts and Change in Practice Mediate Experience and Knowledge-building In any coaching session, you must : Engage the coachee in a dialogue about an issue of practice or an examination of a situation -- create an environment where your coachee feels comfortable and supported in talking about beliefs and issues; Work with your coachee to create that ThirdSpace through a suspension of perspective in order to integrate multiple perspectives; Help the coachee to develop insights based on the new, broadened perspective; Reframe the relevant situation from the new perspective; Work with the coachee to develop and practice scripts that will help to see things from this new perspective in the future; Set goals with the coachee for monitoring their own implementation of the new scripts to change the way they think.

NIUSI-LeadScape Strategic Coaching Questions To what degree and in what ways are we ensuring that selected assessment and instructional materials, procedures, activities & strategies reflect the diverse languages, values, beliefs and behaviors that define the identities of the students involved? To what degree and in what ways do materials, procedures, activities and strategies – as well as our own interpretations – support the notion of “spectrum” rather than “continuum” (i.e., disallow an “either-or” perspective)? Here are six key questions for examining beliefs and practices that support inclusive education. You might use these questions in coaching your teachers, in talking with peers, or in your own development.

To what degree and in what ways are we seeking information on the contexts that sustain and give meaning to students’ values, beliefs and behaviors as compared to the contexts within which we are assessing/teaching? How are we dealing with contradictions between students’ values, beliefs and behaviors and the values, beliefs and behaviors underlying the materials, procedures, strategies and activities we are using to assess/teach?

To what degree and in what ways are we being responsive rather than reactive; that is, using assessment/instructional materials that reflect shared understandings generated through deep empathy, attention and curiosity rather than familiar prescribed scripts and answers? To what degree and in what ways are we creating ThirdSpace in our daily practice (i.e., developing assessment and/or instructional options that integrate students’ perspectives and strengths with desired academic goals and outcomes)?

What Will It Look Like for You? Engage Create ThirdSpace Develop Insights Reframe Practice Scripts Set Goals Using one of the six questions on your handout, consider how you might address this question with a member of your own staff. How can you use this question to open up conversations you haven’t been successful in opening up with this person in past interactions? What would each of the components of the coaching conversation look like? Script a set of questions that you might use to engage the person, create a ThirdSpace with that person? Etc. 20 minutes, all facilitators circulate to help.

Regroup! In what ways did you have to change your language to be able to do this? In what ways did you have to challenge your own thinking? What would help you to be able to suspend your own perspective with the other person? Talk with another person at your table about what it was like to try to script these questions for the person you had in mind. Use these questions to help guide your conversation.

Some questions about application: Is everyone coachable? What are the conditions for coaching that need to be established? In what ways can teachers coach each other? Why is this notion of MEDIATED experience so important? How does it support knowledge building? Why is it critical to establish a culturally responsive coaching approach? What expectations should we have of changes in the coach? How does this work when you get back to your building? Here are some of the burning questions you might need to address to prepare to use this in your own practice. In your table groups, talk about these ideas and what they mean to you.

How will you include the NIUSI-LeadScape coaching process in your school? Who When Where What How Think about what this might look like in your school. Who are some of the people you would want to start coaching? When would that happen? In your office, or in the classroom? What are some of the “hot topics” you want to start addressing? How will you approach them?

Here’s an example of what a principal’s calendar might look like Here’s an example of what a principal’s calendar might look like. You see there are a two specific reflective coaching sessions scheduled, plus an “as needed” coaching block on Friday morning. You might have different ways of organizing your time – this is just one way to do it.

NIUSI-LeadScape Coaching is . . . Establishing cognitive, reflective frameworks for action . . . Coach Coachee to develop a culturally responsive “ThirdSpace” . . . ThirdSpace where you can work together to target inclusive outcomes!