That’s political! A Freirean perspective towards coaching as a social practice

Abstract

Demands to re-embed coaching into its larger social context of operation have generated calls to better document the political aspects of this human learning and development process. To address this critical social turn, this empirical article explores the reframing by practitioners of their understanding of coaching practice, using a Freirean lens of oppression and emancipation. The study consists of a 9-month co-operative inquiry with a group of Egyptian practitioners engaged in a praxis comprising initial training and subsequent cycles of action and reflexive workshops about their coaching sessions. Our study found that a Freire inspired praxis led coaches to develop a dialectical understanding of oppression – moving from conflicting dichotomies to a dynamic view, which has implications for their attitude to and role in coaching. We discuss how the resulting politicization allowed the reframing of coaching as a social practice.