PUBLICATIONS
A pracademic’s exploration of mentoring, coaching and
induction in the Western Québec School Board
CollectivEd submission
Abstract:
Mentoring, and coaching have been gaining traction across Canadian school districts as powerful approaches to support teacher professional learning, especially for early career teachers. The powerful potential of professional collaboration has been well documented in the international research literature (Campbell et al, 2017; Campbell & van Nieuwerburgh, 2018; Feiman-Nemser, 2012; Fletcher & Mullen, 2012; Hargreaves & O’Connor, 2017; Knight, 2007; Kutsyuruba et al, 2017; Moir & Bloom, 2003; van Nieuwerburgh, 2012). However, when it comes to mentoring and coaching, not only do jurisdictions vary in terms of programs, practices and policies, but the research literature has raised concerns regarding voluntary rather than mandated mentoring and coaching, ‘contrived collegiality’ (Hargreaves, 1994), ‘judgementoring’ (Hobson, 2013), ‘performativity’ (Ball, 2003; Day & Gu, 2010; Lofthouse, 2016) and the challenges of ‘scaling up’ effective innovations. The aim of this paper is to share the experience of one English school board in Western Québec, Canada (WQSB) that introduced a Mentoring and Coaching Fellowship as part of their mandatory Teacher Induction Program (TIP) in 2009. After nearly a decade, the TIP continues to evolve, but important lessons have been learned in the district. By highlighting the WQSB’s successes and tensions, this paper aims to contribute to the international CollectivEd discussion on teachers learning together through mentoring, coaching and professional dialogue in an effort to continue to learn with and from each other.
This paper was published in the CollectivEd Working Papers Series, June, 2018- Issue 4 found at:
https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/-/media/files/research/collectived-june-2018-issue-4.pdf?la=en
This paper was presented at the ICSEI conference in Stavanger, Norway (January, 2019).
Full programme details found here.
To cite this paper:
Hollweck, T (2018), A pracademic’s exploration of mentoring, coaching and induction in the Western Québec School Board, pages 31-40, CollectivED [4], Carnegie School of Education, Leeds Beckett University.
Review:
Case study researchdesign and methods (5th ed.).
by Robert K. Yin
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 282 pages
Reviewed by Trista Hollweck, University of Ottawa
in the Journal: CJPE; Volume 30; Issue: 1
DOI: 10.3138/CJPE.BR-240
Abstract:
Robert K. Yin’s Case Study Research Design and Methods (2014) is currently in its fifth edition and continues to be a seminal text for researchers and students engaged in case study research. Since the book’s first release 30 years ago (1984), case study research has gained considerable acceptance as a research method, likely a result of Yin’s unyielding position that case study be considered a separate and all-encompassing method with its own research design. Th is current edition of the book is heavily influenced by the advances in case study research and remains a definitive guide on how to design more rigorous and methodologically sound case studies that will stand up to questions of validity and reliability. Importantly, Yin manages to link theory and practice by presenting the breadth of case study research and its historical significance at a practical level. It is Yin’s view that, when “the process has been given careful attention, the potential result is the production of a high-quality case study” (p. 199). Th us, a comprehensive and systematic outline for undertaking the design and conduct of a case study is presented in a very straightforward and readable manner throughout the book’s 282 pages. Ultimately, Yin argues that case study research is a challenging endeavour that hinges upon the researcher’s skills and expertise. As such, this edition includes more difficult concepts to guide researchers and students in the work of carrying out more rigorous case study research, thereby retaining Yin’s ultimate goal “to improve our social science methods and practices over those of previous generations of scholars” (p. xxvi).
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