Impactful Digital Technology Coaches: Identifying their Characteristics and Competencies while Delineating their Role

Digital technology coaches (DTCs) often support teachers with integrating technology into their classroom and instructional program, as well as provide ongoing staff development. To be effective, coaches tend to have specific characteristics for instructional coaching and competencies for educational coaching. We investigated if these characteristics and competencies applied to effective DTCs while we observed their proficiency with technology, their interactions with other educators, and the way they provide support for the teacher-professional learning (PL) process. Three DTCs led over 80 K–12 teachers from the same school district in classroom coaching sessions, collaborative planning meetings, PL sessions, and conference presentations. In keeping with generic qualitative methods, multiple data sources including fieldnotes, artifacts, and transcribed interviews were analyzed. Through examining data detailing their role and impact on the learning of their teacher colleagues, it was apparent that these DTCs possess the characteristics and competencies of effective instructional coaches. Importantly, this study adds to the literature on effective coaches by documenting the applicability of these characteristics and competencies to not only instructional coaches, but also DTCs, elucidating their role, and explaining their influence on teacher PL.