What are some of the latest trends in coaching research? Peter Jackson reports
One of the aims of this column is to draw attention to current research activity in coaching. We often do this by presenting a summary of a particular topic.
This issue, I’ve reviewed recent (2024) editions of the International Journal of Evidence-Based Coaching & Mentoring (IJEBCM) to identify any trends in the direction of research.
Across two regular issues of the journal – 22(1) and 22(2) – there were 29 research papers, representing the work of researchers from 13 countries. Reading across these papers I noticed some themes, each of which raise interesting questions about research and how we might use it in the development of our practice. IJEBCM is open access. I hope the following discussion will both point to some resources for practitioners and help make accessing them feel less of
a barrier.
Theme 1:
A strong orientation towards investigating the experience of coaches and clients
There’s an element of practicality in the choice to look at individual experiences in depth in that it’s generally accepted that insights can be generated from fewer research participants. It’s simply very difficult and time-consuming to organise research that follows the principles of what’s considered the ‘gold standard’ in medical research: the randomised controlled trial. It involves large numbers of participants and ideally a standardised intervention, with defined measurable changes.
All these things are extremely difficult to achieve with a highly contextual and personalised intervention such as coaching. But it’s not just convenience. There are significant strengths of looking in depth at ‘what is it like’ to experience something.
To illustrate the respective strengths of different types of research, I tell my research students a story of when I had to go to the Accident & Emergency service with my son who was a toddler at the time. From the perspective of a quantitative measurement, I was seen within the standard four hours and discharged satisfactorily. My son was OK. From an experiential perspective, the stress I experienced of organising childcare for my other child (as I didn’t know whether I’d be home in time for my partner to attend a job interview) was exacerbated by there being no public phone available (this was before everyone had mobiles), that I had no idea where I was in the queue to be seen, and both I and my son were getting very hungry.
It’s all a pretty normal experience – I’m not complaining! But if an organisational consultant wanted to ‘improve’ the service, perhaps data like these would have been just as useful in their own way as looking at the wait time itself. So, for example, I thought Burt and colleagues’ paper which looked at the experience of developing as a coach was particularly interesting and well presented, telling us more about the dynamics of that process than pure measurement can.
Theme 2:
A tendency towards specific contexts and content of coaching programmes
When I started off in coaching I was a great believer in a generic process that was ‘content’ free. In practice, most of us have faced the question of whether domain knowledge is helpful or obstructive to making progress, and whether sharing or leveraging that knowledge in the coaching dialogue is helpful or obstructive to the client’s learning.
Shared points of reference, specific aspects of good practice, and the importance of authenticity in the relationship are all in play. It seems entirely appropriate for coaching in particular communities that certain specific dynamics should be considered, hence the value of an investigation such as Ahmann and Saviet’s on coaching adults with ADHD and Spencer’s investigation of coaching non-traditional students in higher education.
Theme 3:
Contributions from a wider range of national and cultural contexts
For many years coaching literature was dominated by UK, Australian and US-based perspectives. Current issues of IJEBCM reflect a much greater level of research and practice activity in a much wider range of contexts. This is an important development in the field as it raises useful questions about the relevance of anglo-centric and euro-centric cultural assumptions to applications that may encompass many and different national cultures.
The two issues I looked at here included papers from contributors from Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, India, Turkey and Kazhakhstan, five European countries and the US. A very welcome shift towards a more diverse field.
Theme 4:
Papers that summarise specific topics
Research papers always include a discussion of why the research is relevant. Generally there’s a literature review which is intended to explain how the research will add to what’s already known on a topic. I want to highlight that these literature reviews in themselves can be very useful.
For example, Wilcox and Nethercott as part of their paper on using music in coaching, provide a very readable review of current thinking on the use of arts and specifically music as part of an emotional landscape. Similarly, Beadle and Papworth review current understandings of the embodied nature of metaphor and language. It’s worth reading the literature reviews in these papers alone.
There’s also a useful place for more comprehensive reviews, such as the one contributed by Crabtree and colleagues on socio-cognitive mindfulness and by Prats-Brugat and colleagues on mentoring and gender. These are systematic literature reviews which formally and methodically analyse current research on a particular topic.
Reviews like this provide a powerful starting point for getting to really understand a topic.
I hope this very quick review gives you some idea of the wide range of insights that can be drawn from formal research. If you were your coach, what would you be asking now?
About the author
- Dr Peter Jackson is director of the International Centre for Coaching and Mentoring Studies at Oxford Brookes University Business School.
References
- Ahmann, E., & Saviet, M. (2024). ‘Development of a manualized coaching intervention for adult ADHD’, International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 22(1), 177-198.
https://doi.org/10.24384/hd8r-gc79 - Beadle, C., & Papworth, J. (2024). ‘The experience of an embodied metaphor-based positive psychology coaching intervention for transformation and insight’, International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 22(1), 109-129.
https://doi.org/10.24384/y2px-1t50 - Burt, S., Rajasinghe, D., Garvey, B., Barosa-Pereira, A., & Clutterbuck, D. (2024). ‘What do coaches actually do to learn and develop? A qualitative exploration of the development narratives of experienced coaches’, International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 22(2), 80-97.
https://doi.org/10.24384/a16t-f341 - Crabtree, K., Papworth, J., Pennington, W., & Swainston, K. (2024). ‘A systematic review of socio-cognitive mindfulness interventions and its implications for wellbeing coaching’, International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 22(1), 84-108.
https://doi.org/10.24384/jek2-d087 - Prats-Brugat, E., Castellsagué, A., & Prieto-Flores, Ò. (2024). ‘Mentoring and gender: a systematic review’, International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 22(2),5-20.
https://doi.org/10.24384/ac4a-8292 - Spencer, D. (2024). ‘The challenges of coaching non-traditional students in higher education: Applying a coaching intervention at a UK University’, International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 22(1), 199-213.
https://doi.org/10.24384/14c4-yj08 - Wilcox, D., & Nethercott, K. (2024). ‘Coachees’ Experiences of Integrating a Self-Selected Soundtrack into a one-off Coaching Session’, International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 22(1), 51-67.
https://doi.org/10.24384/bwa7-sn95