The aim of this study was to explore the specific actions that school leaders attempt following a coaching session, investigating how group coaching supports the leadership actions of school leaders. The study was carried out as an action research project with the aim of understanding and further developing the coaching practice.
The article reports on a group coaching study integrated into the National Principal Training Programme in Norway, which was designed to identify reflections on the type of personal agency that can lead to improvements in leadership performance. Our investigation focused on a group coaching protocol initiated with a coaching question that was reformulated during the session. It concluded with a leadership action that the school leader committed to undertake following the coaching session. The study identifies the types of actions that school leaders commit to undertaking after the coaching session and examines whether the coaching process impacts the implementation of these leadership actions.
We found that the leadership actions undertaken focused on what school leaders can do to foster better relationships with their employees, how they can develop a positive culture for learning and competence development in schools and how they can create structures and routines in both day-to-day leadership and broader school organizations. The study illustrates that school leaders perceive group coaching as being beneficial in the process of selecting a leadership action and that, through this process, there is increased motivation to implement this specific leadership action.
The study provides original contributions to the field of educational leadership and coaching, offering practical suggestions for those involved in the development of school leaders. The findings could inform future practices and research in similar contexts, and with further refinement, the results could have implications beyond the immediate setting of the Norwegian National Principal Training Programme.
