Making a Change: The Role of External Coaches in School‐Based Communities of Practice

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21164
• Author: Morgaen Donaldson,Anysia P. Mayer,Larisa Warhol,Robin S. Grenier
• Date: 01 September 2013
• Published date: 01 September 2013

Making a Change: The Role of

External Coaches in School-Based

Communities of Practice

Anysia P. Mayer, Robin S. Grenier, Larisa Warhol,

Morgaen Donaldson

External coaches, provided by intermediary organizations, are being

utilized to support and develop principals, teachers, and schools and bring

about substantive change through communities of practice (CoPs). These

coaches provide an external perspective and are integral to the reform

process. HRD recognizes the value of coaching in organizational

improvement and change, yet understanding the use of external coaches in

CoP is lacking in the literature. This article seeks to address this gap by

presenting the results from a qualitative case study exploring the roles and

experiences of three coaches, in seven elementary–middle schools

implementing the Together Initiative (TI) school reform. Researchers’

fi eldwork consisted of informal site visits and 155 for mal interviews with

stakeholders involved in the Together Initiative, a reform aimed at

improving urban public schools. This study provides a new context for

understanding the role of coaching in supporting organizational change.

Schools are an organizational context that nearly everyone has participated in

as a student, parent, or community stakeholder, yet HRD scholars have, with

a few exceptions (see Evers,Kreijns,Van der Heijden, & Gerrichhauzen,

2011; Fenwick, 2003; Lohman, 2005; Runhaar & Runhaar, 2012), ignored

these settings as ones that can inform our theoretical understanding of and

scholarly practice in HRD. Schools in the United States are faced with a

number of challenges that require new ways of thinking and working, yet

there is limited understanding of how these unique organizational contexts

can effectively manage and navigate the changes necessary for student and

overall organizational success (Evans, 1996; Fullan, 1991). One approach to

supporting change initiatives worth investigation is the use of external

coaching (Elmore & Burney, 1997; King & Bouchard, 2012). Although

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, vol. 24, no. 3, Fall 2013 © Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21164 337

338 Mayer, Grenier, Warhol, Donaldson

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY • DOI: 10.1002/hrdq

previous studies suggest that the barriers to entering schools overwhelm the

job of the external coach (Finnigan, Bitter, & O’Day, 2009), the combination

of an external coaching model with school-based communities of practice may

provide a potentially effective method for engaging multiple stakeholders in

systemic change.

Over the past two decades, informed by the fi eld of HRD, school reform-

ers have employed external, school-based coaches to support learning, perfor-

mance, and change among principals, staff, and teachers. Districts such as

New York Community District 2, San Diego, and Boston, and comprehensive

school reform models such as Accelerated Schools and ATLAS Communities

have utilized, with mixed results, coaches to enhance organizational effective-

ness and improve instructional quality (Elmore & Burney, 1997; Neufeld &

Roper, 2002). These coaches are provided by intermediary, external organiza-

tions. One such organization is the Together Initiative (TI) whose reform

model seeks to support organizational change in schools by providing expert

coaches who facilitate school-based communities of practice (CoPs) with the

ultimate goal of increasing students’ academic achievement. The success of

the reform process in the participating schools hinges on the coaches’ ability

to execute the process in the face of many challenges. This article is derived

from a larger 3-year, mixed-methods study examining the implementation of

a comprehensive school reform model in seven elementary and middle

schools from fi ve districts in one northeastern state. Our focus here is on the

work of three external coaches in these schools. The fi ndings present our

analysis of the roles and experiences of the external coaches seeking to initiate

and sustain organizational change through school-based CoPs. In doing so, we

sought to provide a new context for understanding the role of external coach-

ing in a CoP that supports organizational learning and change.

Review of Literature

When external coaches are given the responsibility of being the main conduit

of the reform process, including the school’s new CoP, and acting as an

intermediary between different stakeholders from teachers to district

superintendents, they are positioned as integral to the organizational change

process (Honig & Ikemoto, 2008). The coach as representative of the

intermediary organization, and those in the CoP process build trusting

relationships, thus allowing coaches to cross the insider–outsider boundary as

schools and districts exhibit agency and take control over reforming their

underperforming schools.

External coaches and the intermediary organizations they represent pro-

vide an outsider perspective to schools that could potentially support change

initiatives (Honig, 2009). At the same time, CoPs empower schools and dis-

tricts faced with the challenge of disseminating organizational knowledge held