Abstract:

In high-stakes educational environments, including many of our urban schools, teachers often operate under intense pressure, leading to disempowered mindsets—patterns of thinking that erode confidence, agency, and adaptability. Disempowerment manifests when educators feel ineffective, unsupported, or constrained by external demands, often resulting in overcompensation (rigid control to assert competence), detachment (emotional withdrawal as self-protection), or surrender (passive resignation to systemic constraints). Disruptive Mindset Coaching challenges these entrenched responses by fostering intentional unlearning—disentangling identity from rigid beliefs, recalibrating values, and developing new skills to navigate professional challenges.

Drawing on research in cognitive restructuring (Clark, 2013), identity (Ibarra, 2004), and self-efficacy in teaching (Bandura, 1997), and the psychology of unlearning (Schein, 2010; Lewin, 1947) and breakthroughs (Atler, 2024), this coaching approach disrupts the limiting beliefs that underlie ineffective practice. By shifting from a deficit view to an adaptive growth model, teachers move from overcompensating toward authentic confidence, from detachment toward engaged presence, and from surrendering toward strategic influence.

This session will explore how school leaders and educational coaches can implement Disruptive Mindset Coaching to shift teachers from disempowered to empowered states. We will examine how interventions focused on self-awareness, cognitive reframing, and reflective practice can realign an educator’s identity, values, and skills with the realities of modern classrooms. Participants will leave with practical strategies to cultivate teacher agency, reduce burnout, and build sustainable, adaptive teaching practices.

Keywords:

Coaching, mindset, development, self-efficacy, identity.