Launching the Next Generation of School Leaders: An Ethnographic Look at Leadership Coaches and Their Experiences on the Development of Transformational Leadership Skills in New School Administrators as a Result of Participating in the Blended Coaching Model

The purpose of this qualitative ethnographic research was to study the culture and experiences of coaches who practice the blended coaching model through the lens of transformational leadership. The study strived to discover the coaches' perceptions regarding their coachees' skills in each of the 10 domains of transformational leadership and sought to understand which domains were impacted the most as a result of participating in the coaching process. This qualitative study was designed from an ethnographic perspective. It included focus group and one-on-one interviews, and observations of coach meetings and trainings. Artifacts were collected to provide a rich understanding of the coaches' culture. As a tool to fill the gap in information gathered through the interviews and observations, coaches completed the Transformational Leadership Skills Inventory regarding the leadership skills of their respective coachees. The findings revealed that coaches who utilized the blended coaching model supported their coachees' development of many of the transformational leadership skills. The coaches focused primarily on personal and interpersonal skills, communication, and collaboration skills. Coaches viewed that communication skill development was most impacted by coaching and that anticipating obstacles was the skill area in which the coaches provided the most coaching. Based on the findings, the researcher concluded that coaches who utilize the blended coaching model tend to support the development of transformational leadership skills in their coachees and emphasize the development of personal and interpersonal skills, communication skills, and collaboration skills. Coaches who practice the blended coaching model also support their coachees' relationship-building skills. It appears that coaches focus their coaching on the situational needs of the coachee. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that to ensure school leaders develop the transformational leadership skills needed to lead 21st-century schools, funding for leadership coaching is prioritized, coaches are provided to support all school leaders, consortiums of districts form professional learning community groups to help coaches deepen coaching skills and transformational leadership development skills, and coaches receive up-to-date professional development in current critical issues facing school leaders