Exploring educational psychologists’ views and experiences of coaching: A mixed methods study

Abstract

Coaching psychology is an emerging sub-discipline of coaching and represents a unique approach to practice in educational psychology. This research sought to explore educational psychologists’ (EPs) views and experiences of coaching in practice.Phase 1 of the research obtained EPs’ views of coaching whilst Phase 2 explored the experiences of EPs who use it in practice. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected, through the use of online questionnaires in Phase 1 (N=119) and semi-structured individual interviews in Phase 2 (N=10). Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and frequency statistics, Chi-square analysis, independent t-tests and Tukey HSD tests, whilst the qualitative data was subject to a mixture of content and thematic analyses.The findings of this research suggest that there is ambiguity in both the understanding and practice of coaching. However, 81 per cent of participants believe that it fits with the practice of educational psychology, whilst 93 per cent believe that it will have a future in educational psychology. A number of barriers to practice were identified, including a lack of professional confidence and the type of service in which EPs work. Consideration is given to the implications of this research for the future practice of EPs, and suggestions for future, evidence-based research are presented.