Coaching as universal critical pedagogy: the transformative impact of treating students as 'thinking equals' in tutorials.

“… No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge… (Gibran, 1923).
In the poem ‘On Teaching’ from his masterpiece The Prophet, Khalil Gibran reveals that teachers only bring to manifestation that which is already within the learner. One hundred years later, higher education pursues ‘teaching’ that is frequently driven entirely by the teacher. Though academics may deploy constructive alignment to ensure that learning is about “what the student does” (Biggs, 1999), teachers continue to drive the curriculum content, structure, assessment methods and activities to demonstrate that they are indeed teaching and students are getting value for money. It seems deeply ironic that a model of teaching intended to enable students to construct their own learning has evolved into a mechanistic methodology whereby students are potentially more constrained and have less agency over their learning (Klemenčič, 2015). The student becomes dehumanised (Freire, 1970), having to perform against outcomes rather than evolving and ‘becoming’ an improving human (Green and Lee, 1995). However, coaching practices can be used to fulfil Gibran’s truth of teaching. Coaching is a democratic, non-directive process (van Niewerberg, 2016), in which a coach works from the fundamental principle that every person has the ability and knowledge within them to make decisions and take actions that align with their own values, beliefs and desires (Kline, 1999). This paper presents research undertaken at the University of Derby (UK) into the strategic implementation of coaching approaches in university-wide personal academic tutorials as a critical pedagogy, designed to help students to develop from someone who is ‘coming-to-know’ to someone who is ‘coming-to-be’ (Green and Lee, 1995). The key principle is that of students as ‘thinking equals’ (Kline, 1999) who have agency, through a coaching dialogue, to explore topics that are important for their individual academic development, to challenge and view learning from their perspective, and to have agency over their actions and outcomes. This paper presents the findings of the impact of coaching approaches from 214 students, and will reflect on the value of establishing a university culture of ‘thinking equals’. It will conclude with exploration of extension of the current coaching approach to further democratise the higher education experience, and the implications for invoking pedagogies of discomfort (Boler 1999, 2017) that may be necessary with tutors and students for genuine student agency, transformation and ‘becoming’.