Abstract:

Inclusive teaching requires teachers to respond to growing academic, social, emotional, and linguistic diversity, including in digital and hybrid learning environments. Yet formal teacher education does not always provide sufficient support for translating inclusive principles into sustained classroom practice. This paper examines pedagogical coaching as a mediating mechanism between teacher education and the development of teacher self-efficacy for inclusive teaching.

Methodologically, the paper is based on a theory-driven integrative review of the literature. It brings together foundational and recent scholarship on teacher self-efficacy, inclusive education, reflective practice, and pedagogical coaching, and synthesizes recurring mechanisms across these fields to construct an integrative conceptual framework.

The review findings indicate that pedagogical coaching can be understood as a multidimensional process that supports inclusive teaching through three interrelated dimensions: a cognitive dimension that strengthens instructional decision-making and differentiated teaching; an emotional-reflective dimension that supports confidence, regulation, and persistence in complex teaching situations; and a social-organizational dimension that promotes collaboration, professional support, and shared responsibility for inclusion. These dimensions are interpreted through Bandura’s four sources of self-efficacy: mastery experiences, vicarious learning, social persuasion, and emotional and physiological states.

The paper proposes a conceptual model in which pedagogical coaching mediates between formal teacher education and the development of teacher self-efficacy for inclusive teaching, while teacher self-efficacy, in turn, supports the implementation of inclusive practices. The model contributes to a clearer understanding of how inclusive teaching capacity may be strengthened across face-to-face, online, and hybrid settings, and points to implications for teacher education, school-based professional development, and future empirical research.

Keywords:

Inclusive education, teacher self-efficacy, pedagogical coaching, teacher professional development, differentiated instruction.