Equity in Every Coaching Meeting: 2 Easy Reflection Questions
Supporting teachers in talking about educational equity in their classroom (and the school) means building it as a habit, not having a one-shot conversation. Often coaches are nervous about bringing up disparities in student experiences or outcomes related to students’ social identifiers (race, gender, ability level, poverty level, and so on) because they worry about how the teacher will respond or sacrificing the trust they’ve gained with the teacher. But if there’s a conversation that must be had between a teacher and their coach, it’s that of highlighting (and figuring out how to change) any inequity or oppression that lives in their classroom, whether intentional or not.
Instead of making it feel like an awkward conversation, I encourage coaches to talk about equity in every conversation, so when more serious conversations do need to be had, the foundation is already laid. This starts with the very first “welcome meeting” when coaches and teachers meet for the first time. Coaches should communicate that coaching will involve conversations about confronting systems of oppression, including ableism, patriarchy and racism. Much more could be said here, but more on discussing equity in welcome meetings another day.
From there, I’ve found it helpful to address issues of educational equity by building it right into your coaching meeting agenda. It should be included every time you meet with a teacher. The simplest way that I’ve found to do this is build a habit of teacher reflection on their classroom observation data using two easy questions:
Reflection Questions on Classroom Data:
1. Notice/wonder: What do you notice or wonder about X?
2. Equity: What patterns or trends were observed in terms of gender, ethnicity, race, language, ability, etc.?
Here’s what the process looks like:
A coach observes a teacher’s class for 15 - 20 minutes, collecting data using an observation tool on a particular focus area. (If you missed my post on my student engagement observation tool, go back and check it out.)
Then when that coach and teacher meet together, after a brief check-in and celebration of “glow” areas, the coach shares a physical copy of the completed observation tool for the teacher to see.
They discuss the two questions above, in the given order. First, “What do you notice or wonder about X (insert given topic)?” For example, you may insert “student engagement” or “who is responding to your questions” in for the X. Try to keep this question focused.
Then, ask the question about equity. A teacher may notice that they are only calling on the students in the front row, or that they praise their female students significantly more than their male students. It may well be that there were no observable trends related to equity, and that’s great! There’s no need to push an issue if it’s not there. But by asking teachers to reflect on equity in every coaching meeting, you are building their stamina to engage in the conversation when needed and centering equity as a key issue in the classroom.
The whole process of discussing these two questions should ideally fall around three minutes. Yes, that’s it!
Of course, if the class data you are sharing highlights some significant pattern of exclusion or bias, and your teacher is diving deep into reflecting - go with it! Otherwise, move on to naming some concrete ways to move forward and practice together. Make sure your coaching meeting doesn’t get left as just a discussion, but that teachers leave with practical ways to improve their instruction and the learning environment for the thriving of all kids.
Coaching for equity doesn’t have to be an intimidating process. Building in some simple habits for discussion for yourself and your teachers will go a long way in the pursuit of equity everyday.