Cultivating a Culture of Growth in Schools

Cultivating a Culture of Growth in Schools

Instructional coaching doesn’t fail because teachers don’t care.
It fails because growth cannot occur where people don’t feel safe.

Too often, coaching is treated as a technical problem—tighten the feedback, improve the tools, refine the strategy. But coaching is, first and foremost, a human endeavor. Before teachers will take risks, invite feedback, or expose uncertainty, they must answer three unspoken questions:

Am I safe here? Do I belong here? Is this journey worth taking?

A culture of growth is what answers those questions—consistently, intentionally, and over time.

Why Environment Matters More Than Pressure

There’s a common misconception that resistance to coaching signals unwillingness. In reality, resistance often signals self-protection. When teachers feel judged, exposed, or evaluated, their brains do exactly what they are designed to do: protect.

This is why growth cannot be demanded.
It must be cultivated.

Instructional coaches who understand this stop trying to “fix” teachers and start designing environments where growth feels possible. They recognize that trust, belonging, and clarity are not soft skills—they are the conditions that make instructional improvement viable.

The Three Conditions That Make Coaching Work

Effective coaching cultures rest on three interconnected conditions:

Safety and Belonging
Teachers must experience coaching as partnership, not surveillance. This is built through everyday actions—how coaches show up in hallways, how voices are included in meetings, and whether coaching is positioned as support for everyone, not remediation for a few.

Habits of Vulnerability
Even in safe environments, growth stalls if vulnerability is optional. Coaches model risk-taking, invite feedback, normalize uncertainty, and refuse to play the role of evaluator. Over time, teachers stop performing and start reflecting.

A Shared Destination
Coaching is movement—and movement requires a destination. When priorities are unclear or fragmented, growth feels arbitrary. When vision is shared, repeatedly named, and grounded in evidence, teachers can align their efforts with purpose rather than compliance.

These conditions don’t emerge accidentally. They are designed.

What Changes When a Culture of Growth Takes Root

When a culture of growth is present, coaching feels different.

Teachers initiate reflection before being asked.
Conversations include curiosity, not defensiveness.
Disagreement becomes productive rather than personal.
Instructional priorities sound like “our work,” not “your expectation.”

Most importantly, teachers begin to see coaching not as exposure—but as opportunity.

Want to Learn More?

This session explores:

• how instructional coaches build safety and belonging so teachers feel secure enough to engage in coaching

• why resistance to coaching is often a signal of unmet psychological needs rather than unwillingness

• how habits of vulnerability shift coaching from performance to reflection

• how refusing evaluation and adopting a dialogical coaching stance strengthens growth over time

• how establishing a shared instructional destination aligns vision, data, and daily coaching actions

The session is designed for instructional leaders seeking to create the conditions where growth becomes normalized, collective, and sustainable.

Interested in training your instructional leaders on cultivating a culture of growth?
Click the button below to learn more.