Abstract
Objective: Coaching is a process that aims at personal and social development, during which the coach provides the learning environment for another person to improve their performance and career success through the development of key capabilities, so that the second person can then independently, by utilizing those capabilities, achieve the necessary conditions for their success. Therefore, it can be said that the subject of coaching and its application, given its benefits and the impact it can have, is of considerable importance in contemporary organizational discussions and requires serious attention from managers and officials of organizations. In this regard, the education organization is of particular importance, given the huge number of human resources and the important role it plays in raising the future generation and the growth and development of society. In general, by applying coaching to teachers and promoting their self-management and awareness, we can move society towards a society with wise and informed individuals. One of the most important and influential issues that affects teachers and their performance and work is educational supervision and guidance. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to identify the barriers and limitations of the application of coaching in educational supervision and guidance activities in Khuzestan Province.
Materials and Methods: The present study was applied research in terms of purpose and was designed based on a qualitative research approach. The intended orientation in this study was the phenomenological method due to the need to examine and analyze the views, experiences, and opinions of the community. The participants of this study were 17 educational Supervisors of the Khuzestan Province education organization who were selected using a purposive snowball sampling method and their data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Finally, the research data were analyzed using the thematic analysis method and to ensure the validity and reliability of the data, the four criteria presented by Guba and Lincoln (2000) were used, namely validity, transferability, reliability, and confirmability.
Discussion and Conclusion: The findings of the present study led to the identification of 11 main obstacles and limitations for the application of coaching in the supervision and guidance activities of educational Supervisors in Khuzestan Province, which include obstacles related to: recruitment and appointment, in-service training, cultural and supportive, environmental and geographical, structural, scientific and specialized, individual and personal of the educational Supervisor, individual and personal of the teacher, economic and equipment, nature and executive, time and statistics. According to the findings of the study, it can be said that for the application of coaching in educational supervision and guidance, identifying and removing existing obstacles is of particular importance, and with the help of these findings, the Education and Training Organization can think of appropriate measures to improve the processes of educational supervision and guidance.
As a result, it can be acknowledged that the education and training system should be more refined and accurate in selecting and hiring its employees and choose the most suitable and competent people, and that people who are more prepared in terms of qualifications and competence and in terms of motivation, effort and willingness should be selected as the future teachers of the country. Also, the necessary and sufficient number of in-service training courses should be planned in general and specialized, theoretical and practical forms, because some of the obstacles and limitations of the practice of coaching are due to the low awareness of managers, educational Supervisors and teachers in this field, for this reason, steps should be taken to remove this obstacle by holding the necessary courses and training. In order to raise the social status of teachers and increase their motivation to implement plans, special attention should be paid to their economic problems. Also, the existence of a centralized structure in education and training, minimal authority of schools and regional offices, and the issuance of the same instructions for all parts of the country, despite the great differences in terms of culture, economy, environmental context, etc. in different regions, is wrong and poses a problem for the practice of coaching, and the Education and Training Organization should take action to resolve this problem.