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Description
The systemic oppression in the United States can be found when educational institutions expand the divide between the “haves” and the “have-nots.” There is a historical pattern of schools serving the most marginalized communities receiving novice teachers and experiencing high teacher turnover, a pattern that has to be disrupted to ensure all students have access to highly qualified teachers, regardless of the neighborhood in which they live. The purpose of this study was to understand if instructional coaches can aid in the retention of novice teachers. Phenomenology and the critical incident technique (CIT) were used to assess the practices of instructional coaches in coaching conversations to explore connections to novice teacher efficacy and retention. Five dyads, each consisting of a novice teacher and instructional coach from San Diego or Riverside Counties, were interviewed four times over the course of two months. Coaches provided flexibility in their coaching conversations to allow novice teachers to express needs, while also allowing coaches to target novice teachers’ growth areas. In addition to strategy sharing, instructional coaches modeled best practices for novice teachers. COVID-19 had major implications on how teachers felt and their areas of need. Instructional coaches played critical roles in creating a sense of belonging and positively influencing how novice teachers felt about teaching, currently and in the future. As a result, all novice teachers saw themselves teaching for more than 5 years. This study suggests coaches can support novice teacher efficacy and retention and should put into practice at all schools. Lastly, instructional coaches need development and opportunities to collaborate with other instructional coaches.
