The study “Understanding a PD facilitator’s decision-making and practices” (Kitchen, 2025) highlights the complexities of decision-making for instructional coaches and PD facilitators, emphasizing how building productive professional relationships with educators is essential for meeting their professional development needs. Using the ROGI (Resources, Orientations, Goals, Identities) framework, the research demonstrates how a facilitator’s identities and goals shape decisions and practices, and how prioritizing trust, collaboration, and vulnerability can transform coaching relationships into opportunities for meaningful, sustained instructional change.
Reflection for FASD Instructional Coaches
As FASD Instructional Coaches, this research invites us to reflect deeply on how we approach our coaching practices. It reminds us that while we bring expertise in FASD-informed strategies, our impact grows when we build trusting, respectful relationships with educators, positioning ourselves as partners rather than experts with all the answers.
The study highlights the power of co-teaching and real-time instructional collaboration, reinforcing the value of listening authentically and adapting our approaches based on what educators identify as their real needs. It also challenges us to be professionally vulnerable, acknowledging when our strategies need adjustment, and to create space for educators to share openly. In our FASD coaching work, this means continually checking in with educators, co-planning, modelling strategies in classrooms, and fostering environments where educators feel safe to explore and refine FASD-informed practices.