by Jordan Benedict (and the AAICIS Research Team)
During the 25/26 school year, members of the AAICIS research team interviewed instructional coaches and administrators working across 11 countries and 4 continents. You can read Part 2 of our 4-part series in the TIEOnline Newsletter. If you missed Part 1, you can find it here.
Our conversations with coaches illuminated both the promise and challenges of coaching in international schools presently. What we heard loud and clear: successful coaching doesn’t happen by accident; it only thrives with intentional structures, clarity, and schoolwide shared commitment.
The Barriers We Saw Most Often
Across our conversations, a few challenges for coaching showed up repeatedly:
- Unclear coaching roles
- Time constraints and competing duties
- Inconsistent administrative messaging
- Multilingual and multicultural dynamics
- Teacher uncertainty about the purpose of coaching
These barriers can make it feel like your coaching programs struggle to find their footing. The good news is that with tools and structures, we can create bridges to successful coaching.
Turning Barriers Into Bridges
The AAICIS Principles of Practice outline the foundational mindsets and behaviors that make instructional coaching both sustainable and high-impact in international schools. These principles – Partnership, Knowledge, Reflection, Growth, Collaboration, Systems Orientation, and Data – provide a practical lens for understanding why certain barriers arise and how schools can intentionally overcome them.
For example, the Partnership principle emphasizes building trust with teachers and administrators – something many focus group participants named as both a success factor and a challenge. Coaches shared that misunderstandings about their role or inconsistent messaging from leaders can erode trust. The Principles of Practice emphasize that partnership necessitates coaches to “establish and maintain strong relationships with teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders,” and to communicate in ways that promote psychological safety and collaboration.
Similarly, the Systems-Oriented principle addresses the structural challenges that administrators described. Schools that align coaching with broader goals, protect time for coaching, and clarify role expectations create conditions where coaching can thrive. This principle states the importance of “defining instructional coaching roles and responsibilities” and designing systems that reinforce shared goals.
Reflect With Your Team
As a starting point, consider sharing just one of these Principles with your leadership or coaching team – perhaps Partnership or Systems Orientation – and ask:
- Where do we see evidence of this principle in our school?
- Where might misunderstandings, mixed messages, or structural constraints be creating friction?
- What small shifts could immediately strengthen alignment?
Diving a bit deeper, here are some additional questions to explore:
- Does the coach have a job description? Is the school community aware of that job description?
- How does the instructional coach work with the curriculum team (if you have one) and/or your division leadership (assistant principals or principals)? Are you perceived as a “united front” or separate entities?
- How are these roles communicated?
Using the AAICIS Principles of Practice in this way allows teams to move from frustrations to next steps grounded in shared language and clarity.
AAICIS Is Here to Support
If you’d like help facilitating these conversations or mapping the Principles of Practice to your school’s current coaching model, the AAICIS School Support Team is available to partner with you. And if you haven’t yet read Part 2 of our TIEOnline series, you can find it here. Look for Part 3 in February, where we explore coaching across cultures and languages.