Compassionate Coaching: How to Help Educators Navigate Barriers to Professional Growth

When we embark on a journey, every action revolves around the destination. Of course, not all trips are smooth sailing. We inevitably hit distractions, obstacles, and detours. These challenges threaten to blow us off course, but when we stay focused on the destination rather than the barriers, we can move forward.

The same is true in education. Barriers to effective teaching are neither permanent states nor character traits. Rather, they are temporary challenges successful coaches help teachers overcome by connecting them with the right methods and keeping them focused on the destination.

In Compassionate Coaching, Kathy Perret and Kenny McKee identify the six most vexing challenges teachers face—lack of confidence, failure, overload, disruption, isolation, and school culture challenges—and the six corresponding ways that coaches can help teachers surmount them, dubbed the compassionate coaching focus areas.

Coaching with compassion is a process focused on partnership, empowerment, prioritization, routine, connection, and openness. Done well, it can result in transformational improvements to student achievement and teacher work satisfaction. In some cases, it can even shift the trajectory of whole schools.

Roadblocks and detours can get in our way when we are coaching just as they can during any journey. Instead of grumbling about the setbacks, we can open our eyes to the possibilities of a new and better route. That's what compassionate coaching offers. Let's go!

Kathy Perret is an instructional coaching trainer and virtual coach as well as coauthor of The Coach Approach to School Leadership. As the founder of Kathy Perret Consulting, she empowers school leaders, instructional coaches, and classroom teachers in their professional growth. With more than 30 years of experience in the field, Kathy hosts onsite and virtual professional learning for educators around the world. Educators directly affect student growth and performance, and Kathy is dedicated to improving experiences and outcomes for both adults and kids. She believes everyone deserves a coach—and that includes teachers, instructional coaches, and school leaders!

Kenny McKee is a National Board–certified teacher who works as a high school literacy and instructional coach for Buncombe County Schools in Asheville, North Carolina. He supports classroom teachers and other school faculty in professional growth and instructional practices. He has 20 years of experience in education as a secondary English language arts teacher and instructional coach. He has also served as a teaching instructor for the department of Literacy, English, and History Education at East Carolina University.