Elena Aguilar COACHING FOR EQUITY—Conversations That Change Practice
Confession. Usually, towards the end of a book, no matter how fabulous and informative it may be, my attention wanes, and my copious note-taking diminishes. Not this time! Author Elena Aguilar shares perspective and insights of one educator’s understanding with a thoughtful yet persistent equity coach at their side in the last few chapters of Coaching For Equity. This example of an equity-focused conversation demonstrates each of the phases of transformational coaching. It is a gripping, and unfortunately, sometimes a familiar account of the inequities a child of color can experience while attending school. The coach and teacher dialog is inspiring as you follow the steps they purposefully and, yes, sometimes painstakingly take to change their instructional practices to ensure equitable outcomes for each student. Your heart aches, hides, and then soars knowing the equity dialog with both the sender and receiver takes bravery, commitment, and determination.
Going back to the book’s initial chapters, Aguilar shares, “Every conversation Is a conversation about equity….regardless of the demographics of the school” (p. 9). “Who we are matters tremendously in our ability to coach and lead for equity. How we show up is a critical variable in our ability to transform schools. And how we show up, is most closely within our sphere of control, which is why it’s worth focusing on if we aspire to contribute to equity in schools” (p. 4). Each student matters and each student needs a teacher as an advocate in their ability to grow as learners. Aguilar’s coaching for equity framework guides educators on how to “focus on and prioritize changing actions and behaviors” (p. 37) with transformational coaching conversations.
Aguilar states, “In order to coach for equity, there is an expansive set of abilities that you need. These abilities include a set of knowledge. Amongst other things, you need to know how to work with adult learners, how to recognize inequities in the classroom, and how to understand emotions. You also need a set of skills, including how to use a wide array of Transformative Coaching tools, how to coach around belief, and how to coach using the four Phases of transformation coaching. You need will: a deep commitment to interrupting inequities and a profound sense of purpose. Capacity is necessary to coach for equity--time and resources. You need cultural competence; a set of skills and knowledge to understand your own identity and the identities of others, and to navigate difference. Finally, you need emotional intelligence; self-awareness, the ability to navigate your own emotions, as well as an ability to recognize the emotions of others and to navigate their emotions'' (p. 10-11).
Coaching for equity is an art. Aguilar’s book provides four phases of Transformational Coaching. “These four phases describe the process regardless of what lane of Transformational Coaching we’re in--whether we’re coaching teams, coaching for emotional resilience, focusing on coaching for equity, or providing prescriptive instructional coaching” (p. 40). W
Coaching with compassion to “center the humanity of others,” with curiosity, “suspending our judgments and opinions,” to make connections, and “face our fears” with courage” and with purpose “to create a world characterized by justice, equity, and liberation. “The journey is the destination” (p. 45-46).
