Powerful Coaching for Professional Development

Coaching Guide for Culturally Responsive Practices and Equity

• The coaching guide helps identify when culturally responsive practices are in place and when they are not.
• Positive feedback should be provided to teachers when good examples of culturally responsive practices are found.
• Reflective conversations on culturally responsive practices may be stimulated by ongoing classroom coaching, observations, meetings, or professional development.
• TPOT observations, BIRs review, and ongoing observation are important considerations when beginning to address equity.
• Coaches can use conversation starters and reflective questions to prepare for discussions around culturally responsive practices and equity concerns.
• Specific questions may assist in entering conversations around culturally responsive practices and equity, such as professional development, data review, and general questions about equity/practices.
• Tips for working through resistance include sharing a PD resource, assessing whether follow-up strategies might be helpful, and probing questions to move the teacher towards exploring the basis for the statement.
• The guide includes strategies for initiating the reflection and guiding the coachee to awareness and buy-in for practice change.
• The guide offers suggestions for addressing concerns, such as getting all children engaged in learning and strengthening family partnerships.
• Teachers may ask for more ideas for connecting with parents, and reflecting on the questions and connected resources together may provide ideas.
• An observation of a specific incident may lead to a discussion of culturally responsive practices.
• Finally, professional development activities or meetings around equity may lead to a coaching conversation and reflection about implicit bias and culturally responsive practices.