Date of Conferral

4-21-2025

Date of Award

April 2025

Degree

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

School

Education

Advisor

Robert Flanders

Abstract

The problem that was addressed through this study was that instructional coaches were asked to complete administrative duties by administrators at an eastern school district (ESD, a pseudonym), which is contrary to best practices advocated by professionals in this field. The purpose of the study was to examine school administrators’ perceptions on the role and the time needed by instructional coaches as well as instructional coaches’ perceptions on their time needed for their coaching at ESD. The conceptual framework was Piaget’s theory of constructivism. For this basic qualitative design, semistructured interviews were conducted with six administrators and four instructional coaches from ESD. The use of Saldana coding process for thematic analysis was employed with the following themes emerging: instructional coaches role and utilization, instructional coaches role and responsibilities, instructional coaches capacity and daily practices, and support provided to instructional coaches. Based on the results, a policy paper was developed clarifying the roles and responsibilities of instructional coaches, stipulating that lunch duty, bus duty, and class coverage beyond 3 hours be prohibited, and calling for the elimination of any pseudo administrative tasks. The findings revealed that when instructional coaches are distracted with administrative duties, educators’ primary needs are neglected, and teacher efficacy is affected. The results might promote positive social change by enabling administrators to provide stronger support for instructional coaches, which in turn will enhance teacher efficacy, and ultimately benefit the students.

Download

Share

 
COinS