Abstract:

The lack of social mobility is a key issue for Europe. Those from disadvantaged backgrounds often lack positive role models or family support. They are not always aware of their options or their potential, so they may be subject to negative influence in their own communities. Various scholars (for instance, Brookings et al., 2017) highlight that socioeconomic factors and family backgrounds are main barriers to social mobility and that gaps between both access to educational opportunities and achievement continue to rise.

In order to address this issue, 6 European educational institutions joined together and focused on developing a range of intervention strategies including the use of role models and coaching practice, which are believed to help to ensure equality of opportunity and provide support to the target groups in order to raise aspiration and improve educational opportunity. The last two decades has seen a rise in the field of coaching with several accrediting bodies, training organisations, foundations and academic routes. The primary purpose of coaching is to help a person to make progress in a certain area of their life and achieve their goals through a series of training sessions.

The aim of the conducted research was to provide an empirical test of coaching effectiveness from three perspectives: the coaches (young ‘role models’ with proper coaching experience), coachees (disadvantage learners from each participating country) and external observers (school authorities and managers) by analysing the relationship between the main explanatory factors of coaching method and the different types of result that can be achieved. The online survey, involving three target groups, was carried out between May – August 2022 after the training programme was completed and participants were able to reflect on their more extended experience of coaching practice. The results of the research offer fresh empirical evidence of the validity of coaching method for generating satisfaction and improvement in learning among disadvantaged learners in general and in each partner country individually, describing the data and ideas which emerge in each national context. The conducted survey and its overall findings provide empirical evidence that coaching is an effective instrument for promoting learning and behavioural changes among disadvantaged learners. It can also further affect an individual’s learning engagement by influencing their goal-setting and the motivational effects of pursuing their goals. Coaching technique should therefore be taken into consideration in management development processes of the curricular and extra-curricular activities.

Keywords:

Social mobility, coaching, disadvantaged learners.