Coaching Early Grade Reading Teachers in Afghanistan: Promises and Practices in Afghan Children Read (ACR) Intervention Schools

Abstract

One of the rationales for the introduction of coaching in early grade literacy program in Afghanistan was to support teachers to improve their instructional practices in the classroom. However, it was not fully clear how much of this promise has been practiced in schools. The purpose of this study was to explore how coaching of early grade literacy teachers has been implemented and find out if enacted roles were actually practiced in USAID supported schools. A thorough review of literature provided the conceptual framework which guided the assessment of the coaching practice at different stages of implementation. A multiple case study design was adopted to do the investigation using interviews of multiple sources of data. Findings indicate that the coaching of individual teachers has been practiced in most of the surveyed cases. Coaches were co-planning lessons with teachers, modelling lessons as required, observing lessons to get data on how to support teachers, analyze those data to provide feedback, provide feedback and co-plan the upcoming lessons. Several conditions supported the realization of coaching teachers in Afghan Children Read Schools including school management support; training of coaches, supervisors and principals; availability of learning materials and the super commitment of teachers and coaches. Very few problems were detrimental to the implementation of coaching particularly the lack of integration of coaching support to the normal workload of coaches. It was implied that the promises of coaching can even be actualized under unfavorable contexts if relevant conditions for implementation are created.

Keywords: Coaching, early grade reading, teachers’ professional development, Afghan Children Read, policy implementation

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/13-2-01

Publication date: January 31^st 2023