Accompagnement d’enseignants par le conseiller pédagogique dans le contexte de l’école : interrelation entre d’une part son processus d’accompagnement et d’autre part ses caractéristiques individuelles et les caractéristiques du contexte de l’école
To ensure quality education for students, several teaching systems, including the Quebec system, promote the professional development of teachers. For example, the Public Education Act requires teachers "to take appropriate measures that enable [them] to achieve and maintain a high degree of professional competence" (Éditeur officiel du Québec, 2018, août, art. 22.6). The professionals who can coach teachers in this process are the coaches who replace the inspectors since the abolition of these positions in 1964 (Lessard & Des Ruisseaux, 2004). However, during the coaching of teachers by the coaches in a school, the coaching process, which is related to the individual characteristics of the coach and the characteristics of the school context, is difficult to achieve in certain cases (Boutet & Villemain, 2014; Cartier & Bélanger, 2012; CSÉ, 2014; LeBlanc, Dumoulin, Garant & Larouche, 2013; Mané & Lessard, 2007). This problem manifests itself, inter alia, through the implementation of intuitive coaching practices (Mané & Lessard, 2007) and its extent can be justified by the low rate of teachers who benefit from coaching (CSÉ, 2006). Among the factors that can influence the emergence of this problem, there is the lack of definition of the role of the coach, their limited number in school boards and the lack of training recognized for them (CSÉ, 2014). From this problematic, a question arose: during the coaching in a school, how the process of teacher’s coaching by the coach is related to its individual characteristics and to the characteristics of the school context? To address this issue, a conceptual framework based on theoretical models and empirical researches in the field has been developed. It presents the coaching as a complex and dynamic process of thoughts and practices oriented towards the achievement of specific goals, favouring the agency of teachers and related to the individual characteristics of the coach and to the characteristics of the school context. Examination of literature in the field shows that little knowledge exists on this interrelation that can lead to better understand how coaching works in its context. Based on the conceptual framework of the study, the research goals were: during a coaching in a school, 1) describe the coach’s coaching process; 2) describe the interrelation between the coaching process and the individual characteristics of the coach; 3) describe the interrelation between the coaching process and the characteristics of the school context. To that end, an embedded multiple case study (Yin, 2003) was conducted with two coaches who each coached a team of female teachers in a school. Data collected through interviews, observations, and literature were analyzed using the mixed coding method (Miles & Huberman, 1994; 2003, Van Der Maren, 1996). The results of the first goal, which aims to describe the process of teachers’ coaching by the coach, documented its aspects: complex, dynamic, oriented, precise and agentive. For example, the complexity was found mainly in supporting the learning process of teachers, their teaching process and their characteristics. The orientation was found in the presence of goals consistent with the problem identified and coaching practices aligned with these goals. The results in the second goal, which focused on the description of the interrelationship between the coach’s coaching process and his individual characteristics, showed an interrelation between the coaching process carried out and, above all, the conceptions of the coaches and their perceptions of the school context. For example, their control of the results obtained is consistent with their perception of the practices of the teachers. Finally, the results in the third goal, which focused on the description of the interrelation between the coaching process and the characteristics of the school context, showed the role played by the school principal in the coaching process. For example, the school principals communicated their goals to the coach and the latter adopted them and proceeded to plan, enact and control practices in order to reach them. Otherwise, this study presents contributions, among others, at the theoretical and empirical level. Indeed, it allowed to conceptualize teachers’ coaching by the coach in the school context by considering its three central concepts: the coaching process, the individual characteristics of the coach and the characteristics of school context. Empirically, she documented the complexity, dynamism, focus, precision and agency of the coaching process and its interrelation with the coach’s individual characteristics and the characteristics of school context. These aspects are not very present in the research since most of them mainly consider enacting of coaching practices.
Teachers’ education Teachers’ coaching Case study Conceptual framework