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Abstract
Patriarchal ideologies and structures helped to shape the public school institution at the onset of compulsory education in the United States and continue to circulate within educational discourses today, causing harmful consequences for the workforce made up of mostly women that is tasked with educating our nation’s youth (Jones, 2020, Accepted – 2024). Additionally, the separation of theory and practice within educational contexts, also known as the “theory/practice divide,” at times contributes to the production of educational practice as atheoretical, although there are always theories informing practice (hooks, 1994; Lenz Taguchi, 2009; St. Pierre, 2016), and helps to disguise the patriarchy at work in the school institution. For the instructional coaching practitioner, the unique positioning between teacher and administrator within the school institution and the separation of theory and practice within educational contexts work together to produce the coach in isolating and confusing ways.
This research study seeks to explore what happens when a group of practicing instructional coaches meet to share experiences, read and discuss feminist and poststructural concepts and theories, and collaborate to devise ways to coach differently. Using feminist and poststructural theories and the post-qualitative process of “thinking with theory,” this study aims to bridge a connection between theory and practice for instructional coaching practitioners, to cultivate community in both sense and space for coaches, and to investigate the intersection between instructional coaching and feminist practice.
This study names theory and theoretical concepts as a tool coaching practitioners can use to open up new possibilities in coaching. Further, the intersection of instructional coaching practice and feminist practice is framed as fruitful for coaching practitioners. A call for the creation of coaching communities where coaches can engage in the above practices is made throughout this dissertation.
This research study seeks to explore what happens when a group of practicing instructional coaches meet to share experiences, read and discuss feminist and poststructural concepts and theories, and collaborate to devise ways to coach differently. Using feminist and poststructural theories and the post-qualitative process of “thinking with theory,” this study aims to bridge a connection between theory and practice for instructional coaching practitioners, to cultivate community in both sense and space for coaches, and to investigate the intersection between instructional coaching and feminist practice.
This study names theory and theoretical concepts as a tool coaching practitioners can use to open up new possibilities in coaching. Further, the intersection of instructional coaching practice and feminist practice is framed as fruitful for coaching practitioners. A call for the creation of coaching communities where coaches can engage in the above practices is made throughout this dissertation.