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Coaching in Education Getting Better

Results for Students Educators and


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CHAPTER TITLE I

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111 The Professional Coaching Series
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3 Series Editor: David Lane
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5 Other titles in the Series
6 The Art of Inspired Living: Coach Yourself with Positive Psychology
7 by Sarah Corrie
8 Business Coaching International: Transforming Individuals and
9 Organizations
10 by Sunny Stout Rostron
1 Integrated Experiential Coaching: Becoming an Executive Coach
2 by Lloyd Chapman, with contributing author Sunny Stout Rostron
3 Coaching in the Family Owned Business: A Path to Growth
4 edited by Manfusa Shams and David A. Lane
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COACHING IN
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EDUCATION
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4 Getting Better Results for
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and Parents
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Copyright © 2012 to Christian van Nieuwerburgh for the edited collection,
1 and to the individual authors for their contributions.
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3 The rights of the contributors to be identified as the authors of this work have
4 been asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright Design and
5 Patents Act 1988.
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711 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
8 a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
9 mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
20 permission of the publisher.
1
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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3 A C.I.P. for this book is available from the British Library
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511 ISBN 978 1 78049 079 3
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7 Edited, designed and produced by The Studio Publishing Services Ltd
8 www.publishingservicesuk.co.uk
9 e-mail: studio@publishingservicesuk.co.uk
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1 Printed in Great Britain
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www.karnacbooks.com
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111 CONTENTS
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211 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
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ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS xi
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3 SERIES EDITOR’S FOREWORD xvii
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5 PART I: COACHING IN EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS
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CHAPTER ONE
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Coaching in education: an overview 3
8
Christian van Nieuwerburgh
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30 CHAPTER TWO
1 Coaching and mentoring for educational leadership 25
2 Christian van Nieuwerburgh
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CHAPTER THREE
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Coaching in primary or elementary schools 47
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Mary Briggs and Christian van Nieuwerburgh
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7 CHAPTER FOUR
8 Coaching in secondary or high schools 63
911 Christian van Nieuwerburgh and Jonathan Passmore

v
vi CONTENTS

111 CHAPTER FIVE


2 Mental toughness and its role in the 75
3 development of young people
4 Peter Clough and Doug Strycharczyk
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6 CHAPTER SIX
7 Coaching to improve teaching: using the 93
8 instructional coaching model
9 Jim Knight
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1 CHAPTER SEVEN
2 Positive education programmes: integrating coaching 115
3 and positive psychology in schools
4 Lisa Suzanne Green, Lindsay Gregory Oades,
5 and Paula Lesley Robinson
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711 CHAPTER EIGHT
8 Coaching for parents: empowering parents to create 133
9 positive relationships with their children
20 Agnes Bamford, Nicole Mackew, and Anna Golawski
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2 CHAPTER NINE
3 Creating coaching cultures for learning 153
4 Christian van Nieuwerburgh and Jonathan Passmore
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PART II: CASE STUDIES
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CHAPTER TEN
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Coaching in primary schools: a case study 175
9
Neil Suggett
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1 CHAPTER ELEVEN
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Coaching students in a secondary school: a case study 191
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Christian van Nieuwerburgh, Chris Zacharia,
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Elaine Luckham, Glenn Prebble, and Lucy Browne
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6 CHAPTER TWELVE
7 Coaching staff in a secondary school: a case study 199
8 Loic Menzies
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CONTENTS vii

111 CHAPTER THIRTEEN


2 Coaching in higher education: a case study 205
3 Bob Thomson
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5 INDEX 215
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6 To my wife, Cathia, and my son, Christian, who bring out
711 the best in me, and to all those who bring out the best in others.
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211 I am grateful to everyone who provided support and encouragement
1 in this undertaking. The authors of the various chapters are all experts
2 in their respective fields and have been incredibly generous with their
3 support and time. Their thinking, experiences, and commitment to
4 coaching in education has been inspirational and has shaped my
5 understanding of this important field. Many of these authors have
6 become good colleagues and friends.
7 The School of Psychology at the University of East London has
8 been a wonderful place in which to research and discuss coaching. I
9 am particularly grateful to Mark Davies, Aneta Tunariu, Ho Chung
30 Law, Julia Yates, and William Pennington for their commitment and
1 support for the coaching psychology programme. I learn the most
2 when I am with the students on our MSc Coaching and Coaching
3 Psychology programmes. Thank you for your challenging questions,
4 insightful comments, and your passion for coaching. It is a privilege
5 to support you in your journeys to become coaches!
6 One perk of my professional life is the opportunity to visit schools
7 and educational organisations. I would like to record my gratitude to
8 every school, college, and university that has allowed me in to see the
911 way they work. On the whole, I am encouraged and re-energised by

ix
x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

111 what I see: hard-working, committed, and passionate professionals


2 working with students who have enormous potential.
3 I am lucky to be part of a growing international community
4 of university-based academics who are interested in the practical
5 application of coaching within educational settings and I am genu-
6 inely grateful to everyone who is working in this field. Jim Knight is
7 doing wonderful work at the University of Kansas and has been
8 incredibly generous with his knowledge and expertise. Tony Grant
9 and Suzy Green at the University of Sydney have been a source of con-
10 stant admiration and encouragement. Everyone at Karnac has been
1 immensely helpful and encouraging, making the writing process very
2 pleasurable and stress-free. I am particularly grateful to the series
3 editor, David Lane, for his calm and thoughtful approach to this
4 project.
5 My almost (?) obsessive interest in the field of coaching in educa-
6 tional settings must exact a toll on those who provide me with the
711 most love, support, and encouragement: my family. I am blessed with
8 the most wonderful wife, Cathia, who puts up with my obsession
9 because she is similarly caught up in the world of academia. She is a
20 constant source of love and support. My son, Christian, inspires me
1 through his love of learning and way of being. He even humours me
2 by occasionally asking for some coaching! My mother, Tsuyu Tsu-
3 chida, continues to be a model of generosity and resilience. I am also
4 grateful to the Jenainati family for embracing me as one of their own.
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111 ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS
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211 Agnes Bamford delivers coaching courses in schools to parents, teach-
1 ers, and students. She also delivers various types of business coaching
2 and group facilitation in organisations. She is a postgraduate qualified
3 coach with an MSc in Business and a degree in Psychology. Agnes is
4 also a qualified UK teacher. As a working mother of three children,
5 Agnes can relate to the challenges and emotions faced by most
6 parents. Agnes has experienced the difference parent coaching can
7 make for parents and families, and she believes strongly in empower-
8 ing parents to generate the relationship with their children that they
9 dream of having.
30
1 Mary Briggs is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Education at
2 the University of Warwick. She teaches on a number of different
3 education courses with a specific research interest in mentoring and
4 coaching, mathematics education, leadership, and assessment. Her
5 coaching research has focused on children’s perspectives as well as
6 those of adults working in schools, and she has presented this work
7 in the USA and Spain. Mary has published widely across these areas
8 of interest. She has worked in a wide range of settings, including chil-
911 dren’s homes, special schools, primary schools, and universities.

xi
xii ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS

111 Lucy Browne is currently a trainee educational psychologist and


2 completing her Doctorate in Education and Child Psychology at the
3 University of East London. She has previously completed a Masters
4 degree in Enabling Learning, and also has a Bachelors degree in Psy-
5 chology. Lucy has previously worked as a Looked After Children Edu-
6 cation Adviser, multi-agency team co-ordinator, and Intervention
7 Manager in a secondary school. She is passionate about inclusion and
8 supporting young people with social, emotional, and behavioural
9 difficulties, and supporting staff to work with vulnerable young
10 people.
1
2 Peter Clough is a Chartered Psychologist and is a senior lecturer at the
3 University of Hull. His main research interests are in performance in
4 high-pressure environments. He is co-developer, with Keith Earle, of
5 the mental toughness model and of the MTQ48, the mental toughness
6 questionnaire. This has now found widespread application in educa-
711 tion with both young people and staff. Peter’s consultancy experience
8 is wide-ranging and includes implementation of assessment and
9 development centres, workplace counselling, employee surveys, lead-
20 ership development, and assessment. Peter’s Masters degree
1 (Sheffield University) is in Occupational Psychology. He earned his
2 PhD at Aberdeen University.
3
4 Anna Golawski is a postgraduate qualified coach who has a down to
511 earth, objective, and practical approach. She has a natural ability to
6 build trust and rapport with her clients, which helps them to get the
7 most from their coaching sessions. She started coaching over eight
8 years ago as part of her MBA, and has enabled numerous clients to
9 achieve their goals and ambitions. Anna specialises in coaching for
311 education, corporate and not-for-profit sectors, primarily focusing on
1 coaching skills for parents, teachers, and work–life balance
2 programmes. She brings with her a wealth of talent and experience
3 gained over the past fifteen years in business, including Harrods, IBM,
4 and Rolls Royce. Anna writes coaching articles for magazines and is a
5 business mentor for the Prince’s Trust. She has written a book on
6 coaching skills for parents, which is due to be published this year.
7
8 Suzy Green is a Registered Clinical and Coaching Psychologist and a
911 Member of the Australian Psychological Society, based in Sydney. She
ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS xiii

111 is a leader and pioneer in coaching psychology and positive psychol-


2 ogy, having conducted a world-first study on evidence-based life
3 coaching. Suzy has been the recipient of a Positive Psychology Fellow-
4 ship Award and has been published in the Journal of Positive Psychol-
5 ogy. Suzy is an Adjunct Lecturer in the Coaching Psychology Unit,
6 University of Sydney, and teaches Applied Positive Psychology. She is
711 also the co-founder of the Positive Psychology Institute providing
8 clinical, counselling, and coaching services for individuals and organ-
9 isations. Suzy is also a resident expert for Australian Women’s Health
10 Magazine, and writes a regular “stress-less” column.
1
2 Jim Knight is an internationally renowned thinker and writer in the
3 field of coaching in education. As a research associate at the University
4 of Kansas Center for Research on Learning, he has spent over a decade
5 studying instructional coaching, and has written several books and
6 academic articles on the topic. Jim has consulted and presented in
7 most US states, in Canada, Japan, Australia, and the UK. He has a PhD
8 in education and has won several university teaching, innovation, and
9 service awards. He writes the popular radicallearners.com blog.
211
1 Elaine Luckham spent seven years teaching English as a Foreign
2 Language in the Far East, Italy, and the UK, before settling in the UK
3 and embarking on an NLP training course. She then moved into state
4 education, working for the past four years as Higher Education
5 Adviser for a large community college in Kent. Combining a long-
6 standing interest in all aspects of personal development and the
7 professional imperative to apply coaching principles at work to help
8 students progress, Elaine recently embarked upon an MSc in
9 Coaching at the University of East London. In addition, Elaine
30 provides leadership development and training for her organisation, as
1 well as individual staff coaching.
2
3 Nicole Mackew has worked in the corporate sector for more than
4 twenty years, in sales and commercial roles. She studied for a post-
5 graduate Certificate in Coaching in 2004, initially specialising by
6 providing maternity coaching. Her approach encouraged women to
7 return to work with confidence, be effective in the workplace, and
8 manage the additional pressures of parenthood. This was followed by
911 further studies in parent coaching. She has delivered courses in both
xiv ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS

111 the private sector and for local authorities. Nicole is passionate about
2 improving the quality of life for working parents. When delivering
3 programmes, she consistently seeks evidence of employees’ improved
4 capabilities within their workplace, as well as their experiencing a
5 better quality of life at home. Nicole is part of a family of four,
6 married, with a teenage stepson and young son.
7
8 Loic Menzies is Director of LKMco. His interest is in how society
9 nurtures children and young people into adulthood. He works with
10 schools and youth organisations to provide training, improvement
1 services, and project development. He bases his academic and policy
2 research on this work. He has worked across the youth and education
3 sectors, first as a youth worker and with youth charities, and then as
4 a Teach First teacher. He gained his experience of leadership in a chal-
5 lenging secondary school, which became the fifth most improved
6 school in the country.
711
8 Lindsay Gregory Oades was a clinical psychologist before becoming
9 interested in coaching and positive psychology. Lindsay developed
20 this interest in mental health service provision before applying it to
1 management and, more recently, education. Lindsay is currently
2 Director of the Australian Institute of Business Wellbeing at the
3 Sydney Business School, University of Wollongong. He recently co-
4 authored the article “Towards a positive university” in the Journal of
511 Positive Psychology, applying positive education in the tertiary sector.
6
7 Jonathan Passmore is one of the UK’s leading coaches. He is a char-
8 tered occupational psychologist, an accredited AC coach, a coaching
9 supervisor, and fellow of the CIPD. He has wide business consulting
311 experience having worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers, IBM Business
1 Consulting and OPM, and as a chief executive and company chairman
2 in the sports and leisure sector. He is the author of thirteen books in
3 the field of coaching and organisational change. With an international
4 reputation for excellence, Jonathan is a consultant, executive coach,
5 and facilitator working across the UK, Europe, and the USA.
6
7 Glenn Prebble. Having graduated from De Montfort University as a
8 geography and PE teacher, Glenn taught in three schools before being
911 appointed Assistant Headteacher at Sittingbourne Community
ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS xv

111 College in Kent. In 2010, he achieved SEAL (Social and Emotional


2 Aspects of Learning) hub status for the college, which allowed him to
3 develop the principles of emotional intelligence across a number of
4 schools in Kent. He has recently worked with undergraduates from
5 the 14–19 PGCE at Christchurch University, Canterbury to support
6 their professional development in emotional intelligence. A nationally
711 renowned field hockey player, Glenn played for England from the age
8 of fifteen through to under-21 level and has coached the Bedfordshire
9 County Men’s 1st XI since 1999.
10
1 Paula Lesley Robinson is a registered psychologist with twelve years’
2 experience at senior management level. Paula combines her practical
3 business knowledge with her experience within the profession of psy-
4 chology. Paula’s current PhD research is on “mental fitness” and creat-
5 ing a scientifically valid and reliable measure to supplement measures
6 of physical fitness. Paula is co-founder and owner of the Positive
7 Psychology Institute, which provides clinical, counselling, and coach-
8 ing services to a broad range of individuals and organisations.
9
211 Doug Strycharczyk is the CEO of AQR, a leading test publisher.
1 Doug’s expertise includes developing psychometric tests. He has
2 played a key role in developing the MTQ48 and ILM72 tests, as well
3 as in the creation of a number of organisational development and
4 leadership development programmes. He now works with schools,
5 colleges, and universities to develop programmes and approaches
6 which attend to student performance, wellbeing, engaged behaviour,
7 employability, and transition. This work takes him to countries on all
8 five continents. Doug has co-authored, with Peter Clough, Developing
9 Mental Toughness, published by Kogan Page (2012). Doug holds a first
30 class honours degree in Economics. He is a Fellow of the CIPD and a
1 member of ILM.
2
3 Neil Suggett, CBE, has worked as a teacher, head teacher, inspector,
4 and leadership developer. He is a practising leadership coach and has
5 delivered coach development programmes locally, nationally, and
6 internationally. He has been a research associate at the National Col-
7 lege, has worked as a National Leader of Education and is currently a
8 Visiting Fellow at the London Institute. He was awarded the CBE in
911 2010 in recognition of his services to education.
xvi ABOUT THE EDITOR AND CONTRIBUTORS

111 Bob Thomson is a learning and development adviser at the Uni-


2 versity of Warwick, where he acts as an internal coach and facilitator.
3 He runs the Warwick Leadership Programme and the University’s
4 Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring and Diploma in Coaching. He
5 also supervises coaches and mentors, and acts as a mediator. He is the
6 author of two books published by Chandos Publishing: Growing
7 People: Learning from Day to Day Experience, and Don’t Just Do
8 Something, Sit There: An Introduction to Non-directive Coaching, which
9 has been translated into Chinese with the title Modern Midwifery.
10
Christian van Nieuwerburgh is a highly sought-after executive coach,
1
researcher, educational consultant, and keynote speaker with signifi-
2
cant leadership experience in the public sector. He currently divides
3
his professional time between three engaging and rewarding roles:
4
Programme Leader for the MSc in Coaching and Coaching
5
Psychology at the University of East London, where he heads one of
6
the world’s leading university-based postgraduate programmes in
711
coaching psychology. His particular area of expertise is in the impact
8
of coaching within the education sector. www.uel.ac.uk/psychology/
9
coaching; Chief Executive of the International Centre for Coaching in
20
Education. Through this organisation, Christian delivers consultancy,
1
training, and executive coaching to clients in the UK and internation-
2
ally. www.icce.uk.com; Executive Coach for West Midlands Councils.
3
Christian is an executive coach and facilitator of peer supervision
4
working across a number of public sector organisations in the West
511
Midlands. www.wmcouncils.gov.uk/coachingpool. Christian has
6
enjoyed a richly diverse career. He held senior marketing and business
7 development roles in a number of organisations within the hospitality
8 and fast moving consumer goods sectors in the Middle East, a market-
9 ing role for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and senior management
311 roles in two highly rated local authorities in the UK.
1
2 Chris Zacharia is a Chartered Educational Psychologist with over
3 eighteen years experience of working in the UK and Australia. He is
4 a certified coach, NLP practitioner, and member of the BPS. Special-
5 isms include coaching young people, families, and senior managers in
6 schools. He particularly enjoys training young people and profession-
7 als in using coaching, NLP, and other change technologies. In 2003,
8 Chris was awarded the Gold Quality Service Award for his contribu-
911 tion to the production of the CD, A Pocket Full of Posies.
111 SERIES EDITOR’S FOREWORD
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711 Coaching in education: a need met
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211 Coaching has a long history in education, but its scope has increased
1 considerably in recent years. Its research base is growing, as are the
2 theoretical underpinnings which inform practice. This book looks at
3 both of these, but has as its focus practical applications in a variety of
4 educational settings from primary to higher education and with
5 students, parents, and staff.
6 It provides a comprehensive introduction to the area. We are
7 delighted to welcome it as the latest in our Professional Coaching
8 Series. The editor and contributors have explored the area through the
9 evidence base, but have always placed that in the context of case
30 examples and stories. This enables the reader to gain a real sense of
1 the concerns practitioners face as they grapple with the issues within
2 education to which coaching offers possible solutions.
3 As the editor makes clear, the past decade has seen a substantial
4 increase in coaching activities throughout the educational sector. He
5 argues that coaching has a significant and beneficial role to play in
6 challenging students and educators to achieve more of their potential.
7 Coaching, as a person-centred approach, supports the idea of learning
8 as personalised and challenging. It provides a perspective on learning
911 as a personal engagement with change.

xvii
xviii SERIES EDITOR’S FOREWORD

111 Its importance in education in the UK was marked by its endorse-


2 ment by the Department for Education and Skills in 2003 as one
3 process available to school leaders engaged with continuous improve-
4 ment strategies. This was paralleled by increasing acceptance of its
5 role in education in the USA. So, although the field is comparatively
6 young, the growing evidence base has received official endorsement,
7 but, more importantly, practitioners using the approach have found
8 that it works for them. In part, this might be because it is a means to
9 develop emotionally intelligent leadership. Given the perceived short-
10 age of aspiring leaders in education, coaching also provides the safe
1 space in which such potential can be explored and nurtured.
2 While much of the work in the field has focused on secondary and
3 further education, the editor has sought contributions from across the
4 spectrum. Education in its many forms is represented. This provides
5 an important counterbalance to much of the existing literature. How
6 we support children and parents matters, as well as recognising that
711 we need to attend to the needs of staff and administrators. However,
8 the different contexts represented each present their own risks and the
9 contributors do not shy away from addressing them.
20 In looking at primary education, the contributors of Chapter Three
1 raise issues such as fewer staff needing to cover a broad range of func-
2 tions, and the impact of disagreements in a small group are discussed.
3 The position of children and the limited range of choices they have,
4 including in setting an agenda for coaching, are addressed. As the
511 contributors state, the key issue appears to be who is driving the
6 agenda for coaching. If coaching is about self-determination, coachees
7 must select their own goals and have a sense of self-agency.
8 In considering coaching in the secondary school, Chapter Four
9 outlines the number of different purposes it might fulfil. Coaching
311 programmes offer the opportunity to support students and enhance
1 educational attainment. The issue of resilience is addressed. The use
2 of coaching is explored as a means to address the problem of bullying
3 and stress. This is placed within the context of how secondary schools
4 could use coaching with staff to build a learning culture within their
5 school. Clearly, if coaching is able to address this range of concerns, it
6 has the potential to make a positive difference. How it makes that
7 difference and the impacts of it are examined in this chapter.
8 The issue of resilience or mental toughness is taken up in Chapter
911 Five. The concept itself is explored and four areas are elaborated:
SERIES EDITOR’S FOREWORD xix

111 control, challenge, commitment, and confidence. Through examina-


2 tion of research and case studies, it is argued that mental toughness is
3 strongly correlated with performance, wellbeing, aspirations, positive
4 behaviours, completion/drop-out rates, and employability. The role of
5 coaching in building mental toughness is fully elaborated.
6 From consideration of the position in UK schools, we turn to the
711 USA. Interest in coaching has, as the contributors make clear, explo-
8 ded in the USA. Coaches have been hired across many states, districts,
9 and schools. Yet this has often happened without considering the prin-
10 ciples, actions, and contextual factors that have been found to increase
1 coaching success. The issues this raises are fully explored in Chapter
2 Six.
3 The role of positive psychology in coaching in schools is explored
4 in Chapter Seven. Positive psychology has increasingly been seen as
5 playing a core role in coaching (indeed, the first book in the Karnac
6 Professional Coaching Series was based in this discipline). However,
7 for its impacts to be sustained, it must be used as part of a positive
8 education strategy rather than being one of numerous initiatives that
9 are not integrated. Achieving this is explored.
211 Parents are key members of the educational community, and
1 coaching courses for parents have been increasingly provided within
2 schools. A key to this provision is that the coaches are not experts on
3 parenting, but, rather, focus on the use of powerful questions to enable
4 parents to understand their own role and support the belief that their
5 children can succeed. By helping parents improve communication
6 with their children, the experience at home and in school is improved.
7 The contributors of Chapter Eight argue that the results of parent
8 coaching link directly to the five Every Child Matters outcomes. They
9 are useful tools for local authorities, schools, and educational organi-
30 sations for adapting work with parents across all walks of life.
1 Parental coaching has also found its way into corporate initiatives to
2 support parents who are employees as part of a diversity or corporate
3 social responsibility agenda. The outcomes, it is argued, increase
4 employee engagement and satisfaction.
5 The chapters so far have demonstrated the value of coaching within
6 different educational sectors. So, how do you create a coaching culture
7 to enhance learning? This topic is addressed in Chapter Nine through
8 looking at the journey to create a learning organisation in which coach-
911 ing is an effective part. This provides a valuable framework in its
xx SERIES EDITOR’S FOREWORD

111 own right, but is also an excellent introduction to the case studies that
2 comprise Part II of the book.
3 Hayes Park Primary School has become widely known as the
4 “coaching school”. Coaching has become a fundamental part of how
5 they operate. The case study in Chapter Ten illustrates how coaching
6 is being used on a day-to-day basis. The key is that it forms part of
7 their philosophy of shared responsibility for leadership.
8 The next case study (Chapter Eleven) looks at coaching students in
9 a secondary school. It is based on a collaborative research project
10 between Sittingbourne Community College (with 1,000 + students),
1 educational psychologists within Kent, and the University of East
2 London (UEL). It started as a project for raising attainment using
3 coaching. Coaching was seen as consistent with the school’s general
4 ethos, which valued the student voice and saw leadership and respon-
5 sibility as fundamental aspects of a student’s education. Coaching
6 took its place alongside the Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning
711 (SEAL) strategy. This embeds emotional intelligence within the
8 curriculum. Post-sixteen students were given three days of training
9 and then invited to coach younger students (Year 11). The results
20 showed positive effects on both the coached and those coaching.
1 A project within a London secondary school is investigated in
2 Chapter Twelve to see how coaching techniques could contribute to
3 staff development. The outcomes of the project show that coaching
4 can be both a useful skill for supporting colleagues and to develop the
511 wider culture of the school. It promotes a learning culture and is
6 enjoyed and welcomed by staff.
7 In Chapter Thirteen, the final case study looks at higher education
8 and the use of coaching at the University of Warwick. The aim of the
9 scheme (which was established in 2006) was to create partnerships,
311 outside the normal line management relationship, that enable one per-
1 son to help another to enhance their performance, learning, or devel-
2 opment. The issues relating to training and supervision and the diffi-
3 culties they present are covered in the chapter. The view of the author
4 is that the higher and further education sectors present similar issues
5 to coaching elsewhere. Clients are helped to look at how they manage
6 themselves, relationships to colleagues, and their performance.
7 Coaching is taking hold in education in the UK, USA, Australia,
8 and elsewhere at all levels. It is proving to be a valuable tool to
911 enhance learning. This book address the concerns that are raised when
SERIES EDITOR’S FOREWORD xxi

111 introducing coaching and provides a clear indication of how to


2 address them and build a positive framework that delivers value to all
3 stakeholders within the educational community.
4 I am delighted to introduce this latest addition to the Professional
5 Coaching Series as one that will support you and your organisation to
6 enhance the learning experience for everyone, staff, students, and
711 parents alike. Coaching is a means to harness the energy and positive
8 thinking within your organisation. This book shows you how to do so.
9 I am sure that you will both enjoy it and gain practical insights into
10 the exciting development that is coaching in education.
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2 David A Lane
3 Professional Development Foundation
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1 COACHING IN EDUCATIONAL
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711 Coaching in education: an overview
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211 oaching is already having an enormous impact on education.
1 From the UK to the USA and Australia, the use of coaching is
2 increasingly being seen as a useful intervention to support
3 students, teachers, and administrators. In this book, we recognise and
4 celebrate the ways in which coaching is already making a difference
5 in educational organisations and offer ways in which schools, col-
6 leges, and universities throughout the world can further exploit the
7 potential of coaching and mentoring.
8 For students, mentoring and coaching opportunities include
9 providing peer support to fellow students to enhance examination
30 results and improve academic skills. This type of coaching can also
1 reduce stress whilst improving social and emotional skills. For teach-
2 ers, educational leaders, and administrators, coaching and mentor-
3 ing can help with transitions into new roles. Coaching is also used
4 effectively to enhance teaching skills and drive up performance in
5 educational organisations. The aim of this book is to support you to
6 implement and embed effective coaching approaches and pro-
7 grammes into your educational organisation. To do this, we will
8 consider coaching approaches and experiences from the UK, the USA,
911 and Australia.

3
4 COACHING IN EDUCATION

111 The focus is on the practical application of coaching approaches


2 and the growing body of research into this area. We aim to provide the
3 evidence-based, theoretical context for coaching in education while
4 also proposing a number of specific, education-friendly coaching
5 models that have been tried and tested in schools, colleges, and
6 universities. Throughout, the approach is accessible and practical,
7 using case study examples, diagrams, and stories from practice.
8
9
10 The new millennium
1
2 The past decade has witnessed a notable increase in coaching-related
3 activities in educational contexts. Head teachers, principals, and
4 university administrators have started to introduce coaching along-
5 side more traditional continuing professional development activities.
6 Coaching in education can take many forms and has an impact on a
711 broad range of potential beneficiaries. This includes staff (such as
8 teachers, school leaders, and university lecturers), students, and other
9 stakeholders (such as parents, governors, and members of the com-
20 munity). Training in coaching skills now forms part of the professional
1 development for school leaders in the UK and has been recognised as
2 the new leadership skill for educators in the USA.
3
4
511 Key questions
6
7 If our aim is to harness the potential of coaching within educational
8 organisations, a few questions need to be addressed first of all. As you
9 will see throughout this book, coaching has enormous potential to
311 make an important contribution to learning and development in its
1 broadest sense.
2
3
4 What is the purpose of our educational systems?
5
6 To make the most of coaching interventions in educational organisa-
7 tions, it seems necessary for educational leaders, policy-makers,
8 administrators, and practitioners to agree on the purpose of educa-
911 tion. In other words, in order to address the issue of how coaching
COACHING IN EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW 5

111 might support our educational systems, we need to be clear about


2 what that system is trying to achieve. And yet “what is the purpose of
3 education?” is a very challenging question that has been, and contin-
4 ues to be, fiercely debated. Traditionally, schools and colleges were
5 often seen simply as places for the transfer of knowledge. However, it
6 has also been recognised that “the business of education is not only
711 intellectual. There must be an opportunity for the exercise of respon-
8 sible choice . . . and also for the acquisition of skills” (Jeffreys, 1971,
9 p. 118).
10 At a global level, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1 (1948) proclaimed that “education shall be directed to the full devel-
2 opment of human personality and to the strengthening of respect for
3 human rights and fundamental freedoms” (Article 26). In the USA, the
4 explicit mission of the Department of Education is to “promote
5 student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by
6 fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access” (2010). In
7 the UK, the Department for Children, Schools, and Families (DCSF)
8 stated that
9
211 ensuring every child enjoys their childhood, does well at school and
turns 18 with the knowledge, skills and qualifications that will give
1
them the best chance of success in adult life is not only a right for each
2
individual child and family, it is also what we must do to secure the
3 future success of our country and society. (2009)
4
5 If we accept that modern education is about learning as well as
6 encouraging young people to exercise “responsible choice”, that it
7 should support the “full development of human personality” men-
8 tioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that it has a role
9 to play in social justice and equity, and that it can influence the future
30 success of people and nations, then it becomes clear that coaching has
1 a significant beneficial role to play through supporting, encouraging,
2 and challenging students and educators to enjoy their educational
3 experiences and achieve more of their potential.
4 On the other hand, an influential American educationalist, John
5 Dewey, argued strongly against the notion of education having a
6 purpose:
7
8 education as such has no aims. Only persons, parents and teachers,
911 etc., have aims, not an abstract idea like education. And consequently
6 COACHING IN EDUCATION

111 their purposes are indefinitely varied, differing with different chil-
2 dren, changing as children grow and with the growth of experience on
3 the part of the one who teaches. (1916, p. 125)
4
5 Coaching, through its person-centred learning approach, is a power-
6 ful way of supporting all those persons involved in education. It
7 supports the notion that learning should be personalised and chang-
8 ing. Dewey’s approach proposes that both the “student” and
9 “teacher” develop and grow through the learning experience. As we
10 will see later, this is a key principle of coaching in education.
1
2
3 What is coaching?
4
5 Much of the recent scholarly work about coaching has focused on
6 executive coaching (e.g., de Haan, 2008; Dembkowski, Eldridge, &
711 Hunter 2006; Hawkins & Smith, 2006; Passmore 2010; Peltier, 2010). In
8 these texts and others, there have been numerous attempts to define
9 the practice.
20
1 ● “Coaching is a robust and challenging intervention, is results
2 driven, delivers tangible added value, is typically a short-term or
3 intermittent engagement and enables the attainment of high stan-
4 dards or goals” (Grant, 2007, p. 23).
511 ● “The aim of coaching is to improve the coachees’ performance by
6 discussing their relationship to certain experiences and issues”
7 (de Haan, 2008, p. 5).
8 ● “Coaching could be seen as a human development process that
9 involves structured, focused interaction and the use of appropri-
311 ate strategies, tools and techniques to promote desirable and
1 sustainable change for the benefit of the coachee and potentially
2 for other stakeholders” (Cox, Bachkirova, & Clutterbuck, 2010,
3 p. 1).
4 ● “Empowering people by facilitating self-directed learning,
5 personal growth and improved performance” (Bresser & Wilson,
6 2010, p. 10).
7
8 It is fair to say that there is still ongoing discussion and debate
911 about an agreed definition. There seems to be broad agreement that
COACHING IN EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW 7

111 coaching is about helping a person to achieve their goals or improve


2 their performance through structured one-to-one conversations.
3
4
5 Coaching in education
6
711 “Coaching in education” is a relatively distinct area of work that
8 has been growing over recent years, starting in the early 2000s. Simi-
9 larly to other sectors, educational organisations have used the term
10 “coaching” quite loosely, to refer to a number of widely differing
1 approaches.
2 In the UK, the emergence of coaching was supported by the publi-
3 cation of a Key Stage 3 National Strategy booklet in 2003 (Department
4 for Education and Skills (DfES)). Sustaining Improvement: A Suite of
5 Modules on Coaching, Running Networks and Building Capacity aimed to
6 increase the range of tools available to school leaders to continually
7 improve. In these relatively early days, the proposed form of coaching
8 had a distinctly directive slant. However, the DfES was already opti-
9 mistic about the impact of coaching, proposing that it “could have the
211 power to transform teachers’ professional learning” (p. 23). Coaching
1 was described as a “three-part process” which focused on lesson
2 observation. The process involved a pre-lesson discussion between the
3 coach and coachee, an observation of the classroom practice of the
4 coachee by the coach, and a post-lesson discussion to analyse what
5 had been observed. While the document accepted that a coach was not
6 a “universal expert”, it suggested that this person should have “exper-
7 tise in a particular area” that would be the focus of the coaching (p. 9).
8 This point is further qualified when the document advocates that
9 “coaching is often at its most powerful when the people involved
30 teach different subjects” (p. 9). This is reinforced by the observation
1 that the coach does not need to be “older, have more years of experi-
2 ence or hold a more senior management post” than the coachee (p. 23).
3 Coaching in education, then, was an activity with classroom observa-
4 tion at its centre and professional learning as its aim. It involved two
5 educational professionals, one with expertise in a particular area of
6 practice, which was the focus of the coaching. The relationship was
7 characterised as “confidential” and “based on trust” (ibid.). Impor-
8 tantly, there is recognition that ownership of the learning and the
911 “desire to change and develop” should be within the coachee (p. 63).
8 COACHING IN EDUCATION

111 Overall, the document can be interpreted as strongly supporting a


2 specific interpretation of coaching and its use in an educational
3 setting.
4 The DfES document was followed in 2005 by a National Framework
5 for Mentoring and Coaching as a response to the growing interest (and
6 confusion) in schools about the two approaches. The framework
7 attempted to clarify the definitions of mentoring and coaching and
8 identify how best to use both (Centre for the Use of Research and
9 Evidence in Education (CUREE), 2005). This outstanding five-page
10 framework continues to be a good reference document, although it
1 has been largely ignored by the educational and coaching communi-
2 ties.
3 Without attempting to impose a uniform model for schools to
4 adopt, the document listed ten principles which were designed to
5 inform coaching and mentoring programmes in schools in order to
6 “help increase the impact of continuing professional development on
711 student learning” (ibid., p. 1). The similarities between coaching and
8 mentoring are highlighted when they are both described as “learning
9 conversations” and “thoughtful relationships” based on trust and
20 focused on professional learning. The document advocated the estab-
1 lishment of learning agreements before coaching or mentoring with
2 school colleagues to support improvement. It recommended that the
3 learner (coachee or mentee) should take “increasing responsibility for
4 their professional development” and set their own goals. The princi-
511 ples suggested that a learner should develop an understanding of the
6 theories that underlie any new professional practice and recognise the
7 professional learning that emerges from coaching and mentoring (for
8 both parties). The creation of a context that “supports risk-taking and
9 innovation” is encouraged.
311 After outlining the shared principles of coaching and mentoring,
1 the document helpfully defined three terms to cover the broad range
2 of professional conversations that can usefully take place in schools:
3 mentoring, specialist coaching, and collaborative coaching. Mentoring
4 is defined as a “structured, sustained process for supporting profes-
5 sional learners through significant career transitions” (p. 2) and
6 further subdivided into three categories: Mentoring for Induction,
7 Mentoring for Progression, and Mentoring for Challenge. In all cases,
8 the assumption was that the mentor was a more senior professional
911 with significant experience in the area of learning.
COACHING IN EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW 9

111 “Specialist coaching”, which most closely resembles the practice


2 promoted in the 2003 DfES document, was defined as “a structured,
3 sustained process for enabling the development of a specific aspect of
4 a professional learner’s practice” (p. 2). Specialist coaching was
5 deemed appropriate for improving practice, professional learning,
6 and the development of a “culture of openness” (ibid.). One charac-
711 teristic that distinguished specialist coaching from mentoring was the
8 fact that the learner often chose their own coach.
9 The third category was “collaborative (co-) coaching”, defined as
10 a “sustained process between two or more professional learners
1 to enable them to embed new knowledge and skills from special-
2 ist sources in day-to-day practice” (p. 2). This supported continu-
3 ing professional development in schools by providing one-to-one
4 support between peers to embed learning or expertise gleaned from
5 elsewhere. What was unique about this relationship was its recipro-
6 cal nature—the peers are self-selecting and take turns in the role of
7 coach.
8 The framework also defined the skills of each role, showing both
9 the overlaps and differences. Although it was timely, helpful, and a
211 sound basis for further work in this area, there is little evidence that it
1 was widely adopted by local authorities, schools, or other government
2 departments.
3 As coaching in education gained currency, the publication of
4 Leading Coaching in Schools by the National College for School
5 Leadership (Creasy & Paterson, 2005) further endorsed the use of
6 coaching approaches within schools in the UK. A seminal publication
7 that was well received in educational circles, the workbook built on
8 the National Framework for Mentoring and Coaching with a definite focus
9 on coaching. One of the workbook’s propositions was that “high-qual-
30 ity coaching in schools supports professional development, leadership
1 sustainability and school improvement” (p. 5), three topical areas of
2 interest for the National College and the Department for Children,
3 Schools, and Families. Adopting Suggett’s definition of coaching as
4 “unlocking potential in order to maximize performance—it’s about
5 bringing out the best in people”, Creasy and Paterson (2005, p. 10)
6 encouraged school leaders to start by developing themselves and then
7 equip other members of staff with coaching skills.
8 Creasy and Paterson argued that coaching in education is driven
911 by a “desire to make a difference to student learning”. They identified
10 COACHING IN EDUCATION

111 five key skills which align with the non-directive coaching approaches
2 which will be discussed in this book:
3
4 ● establishing rapport and trust;
5 ● listening for meaning;
6 ● questioning for understanding;
7 ● prompting action, reflection and learning;
8 ● developing confidence and celebrating success (p. 14).
9
10 Preferring a non-directive approach, the workbook iterated that
1
2 as a general principle, it is not the role of the coach to provide answers
3 or give advice. A core purpose of coaching is to support the develop-
4 ment of the thinking and learning processes of the professional
5 learner. (p. 17)
6
711 The authors addressed a possible area of confusion in the National
8 Framework by explaining that “although specialist coaches may offer
9 their own knowledge or experience, this occurs in response to direct
20 requests as the learner seeks out specific information” (ibid.). The cate-
1 gories of coaching were expanded from two (specialist coaching and
2 collaborative (co-) coaching) to seven. They now included “informal
3 coaching conversations” (short conversations managed in a coaching
4 style), “team coaching” (group sessions led by an external coach),
511 “expert coaching” (training in coaching from an experienced external
6 practitioner), “pupil coaching” (peer coaching between students), and
7 “self-coaching” (using a coaching style for self-reflection).
8 Owing to a perceived lack of awareness about the National Frame-
9 work (Lord, Atkinson, & Mitchell, 2008, p. vii), the Training and Devel-
311 opment Agency for Schools (TDA) commissioned the National
1 Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to undertake further
2 research on the evidence base for coaching and investigate how coach-
3 ing and mentoring were being used in schools. While its intent was to
4 update, validate, and increase awareness of the earlier framework, it
5 seems to have had the opposite effect. Some might argue that the
6 NFER research represents a retrograde step, since it adds to the confu-
7 sion of terminology and undermines some of the clarity afforded by
8 the initial work by CUREE. Their conclusion that “mentoring is
911 defined as being concerned with ‘growing an individual’, both profes-
COACHING IN EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW 11

111 sionally and personally” and that it is “linked with professional and
2 career development, and is somewhat characterised by an ‘expert–
3 novice’ relationship” seems less clear than the conclusions of the
4 earlier document. Equally, to define coaching as having “a narrower
5 remit than mentoring” and relating to “specific areas of performance
6 and job outcomes” further clouds the issue (p. 10).
711 With its focus on collaborative learning between practitioners in
8 the classroom, Lesson Study is another National Strategy initiative
9 that closely aligns with coaching. In the foreword to Improving Practice
10 and Progression through Lesson Study (DfES, 2008), the Director of the
1 National Strategies (primary), Pete Dudley, observed that “coaching is
2 becoming increasingly well embedded within the work of LAs [local
3 authorities] and schools, and through the work of National Strategies
4 leading teachers and consultants”. The document goes on to suggest
5 that coaching is one of the ways in which teachers can share their
6 learning and best practice.
7 The National College has also continued to support the use of
8 coaching in schools and three of their professional development pro-
9 grammes for leaders (Leading from the Middle, Leadership Pathways,
211 and National Professional Qualification for Headship) incorporate
1 training on coaching. Participants in the three programmes can access
2 coaches to support their learning (www.nationalcollege.org.uk).
3 Coaching was to have a significant role in an ambitious, large-
4 scale, government-funded initiative to create a Masters-level pro-
5 gramme for teachers called the Masters in Teaching and Learning
6 (MTL). According to the TDA, “the school-based coach is integral to
7 the Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL) Programme” (p. 3). The
8 role of the school-based coach is to “motivate and inspire, encourage
9 on-going enquiry and reflection by the participant” (p. 3). While the
30 TDA claims that “the principles of coaching within the MTL Pro-
1 gramme are based on the National Framework for Mentoring and
2 Coaching” (ibid.), the document suggests that the coach will also
3 “identify needs relevant to the participant’s school context, apply
4 evidence and educational theory to real-life situations, in order to
5 inform and consolidate their learning” (ibid.). Closer reading of the
6 document suggests that the role envisaged for school-based coach
7 combines elements of mentoring and “specialist coaching” as defined
8 in the framework. While this initiative was quietly withdrawn in 2010
911 due to significant budget cuts across the public sector, the inclusion of
12 COACHING IN EDUCATION

111 coaching as a core element of the programme is indicative of the


2 growing recognition that it has an important role to play in education.
3
4
5 Instructional coaching and US approaches
6
7 There is growing acceptance in the USA that coaching is a necessary
8 leadership skill for educators. In an edition dedicated to coaching, an
9 influential USA magazine, Educational Leadership, featured articles from
10 leading North American writers which all supported the development
1 of various coaching approaches (Educational Leadership, 2011). This edi-
2 tion highlights some of the key US views about coaching in education.
3 The most influential of these approaches is instructional coaching,
4 which has gained credibility and popularity in large parts of North
5 America. An instructional coach is an “on-site” professional developer
6 or adviser who teaches educators how to implement specific teaching
711 methods. While instructional coaches are collaborative, they also have
8 a role in preparing teaching materials, modelling best practice, observ-
9 ing teachers, and providing feedback (Knight, 2004). At the heart of
20 instructional coaching is the notion that the relationship between
1 professionals is a key factor when attending to learning and develop-
2 ment. The founder of this approach, Jim Knight, discusses this in more
3 depth in Chapter Six.
4 Alongside instructional coaching, the USA has also pioneered the
511 idea of literacy coaches who have been employed to improve educa-
6 tional attainment (Moxley & Taylor, 2006; Sturtevant, 2003). Literacy
7 coaching can be seen as “a category of instructional coaching that
8 focuses on literacy and related aspects of teaching and learning” (Toll,
9 2009, p. 57) and involves “master teachers who provide essential lead-
311 ership for the school’s entire literacy program” (Sturtevant, 2003,
1 p.11). Importantly, the primary role of the literacy coach is to work
2 with other teachers, not students. They take more of a leadership role,
3 carrying “the responsibility to promote and enhance literacy instruc-
4 tion with the ultimate goal of improving student achievement”
5 (Moxley & Taylor, 2006, p. 8).
6 More recently, “evocative coaching” has emerged as a strengths-
7 based approach for use in schools (Tschannen-Moran & Tschannen-
8 Moran, 2010). Evocative coaching focuses on simple but effective
911 techniques for having professional conversations in educational
COACHING IN EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW 13

111 organisations and is closely allied to the non-directive coaching


2 approach promoted in this book.
3
4
5 Shared interest in learning
6
711 Formal education and coaching both share a fundamental interest in
8 learning. Indeed, probably the strongest philosophy behind coaching
9 and mentoring is that everyone has some potential to learn and
10 develop. Using Bresser and Wilson’s definition of coaching as
1 “empowering people by facilitating self-directed learning, personal
2 growth and improved performance” (2010, p. 10), it is clear that a key
3 focus of coaching is the “self-directed” or personalised nature of the
4 learning opportunity. Gross-Cheliotes and Reilly identify an impor-
5 tant role of coaching when they propose that “coaching conversations
6 foster the deep reflection necessary to establish new thinking
7 patterns” (2010, p. 4). Whitmore’s definition of coaching is perhaps the
8 most apposite for educators: he describes it as “unlocking a person’s
9 potential to maximise their own performance” (2002, p. 8). This
211 resonates with educators, since many would describe this as one of
1 their prime personal and professional drivers. When working in
2 educational organisations, this statement often leads to a genuine
3 sense of “connection”.
4
5
6 How is coaching different from mentoring?
7
8 It should be acknowledged that there is confusion between the terms
9 “coaching” and “mentoring”. This tension is evident in the literature
30 (for a detailed discussion, see Garvey, Stokes, & Megginson, 2009) and
1 it is especially prevalent within education. A number of factors
2 contribute to the current situation.
3
4
Origin of the terminology
5
6 It has been argued that it is possible to trace the origins of coaching
7 conversations to classical times. At the source of the confusion is the
8 fact that one of the first coaches to be mentioned in the literature (the
911 goddess Pallas Athena in Homer’s Odyssey) assumed the role of
14 COACHING IN EDUCATION

111 “Mentor” in order to help the adventurous Telemachus (de Haan, 2008,
2 p. 5). Furthermore, the term “coach” might have derived from the term
3 for horse-drawn carriages (Cox, Bachkirova, & Clutterbuck, 2009, p. 2),
4 suggesting that the practice was associated with the idea of conveying
5 a person from one place to another. The notion of taking someone
6 from Point A to Point B suggests a slightly directive approach.
7
8
Association with sports coaching
9
10 While current forms of executive coaching and life coaching have
1 emerged from sports coaching (Downey, 2003; Gallwey, 2001; Whit-
2 more, 2002), this association could also be clouding the issue. The
3 Oxford English Dictionary defines a coach as someone who “trains
4 others for an athletic contest” (OED online) while the Merriam–Webster
5 Dictionary gives a football coach as an example: “one who instructs
6 players in the fundamentals of a competitive sport and directs team
711 strategy <a football coach>” (Merriam–Webster online). Many students
8 will have experienced sports coaching through their involvement in
9 school, college, or university sports teams and might, therefore, asso-
20 ciate coaching with a more directive approach.
1
2
Prevalence of mentoring programmes
3
4 Mentoring programmes have been successfully integrated into educa-
511 tional organisations. Many schools, colleges, and universities had
6 already implemented mentoring schemes and were successfully using
7 mentoring to support staff and students before the increased interest
8 in coaching in education. Within many schools, colleges, and univer-
9 sities in the UK, students already have learning mentors. Newly quali-
311 fied teachers (NQTs) and recently appointed head teachers are
1 allocated a mentor when they start at a school. Buddy schemes in
2 primary and secondary schools also create mentoring opportunities
3 for students. Colleges and universities often have mentoring schemes
4 for staff and students (see Chapter Thirteen for a case study).
5 To further cloud issues, the term “mentor coaching” has emerged
6 and is defined as a “facilitated, structured process whereby an experi-
7 enced person introduces, assists, and supports a less experienced
8 person (the protégé) in a personal and professional growth process”
911 (Nolan 2007, p. 3). As can be seen above, it can be used to achieve very
COACHING IN EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW 15

111 positive results. We firmly believe that both coaching and mentoring
2 can and should make a contribution within education.
3
4
5 Similar but different?
6
711 As noted above, the National Framework for Mentoring and Coaching
8 attempted to distinguish between the two approaches. There is a
9 growing consensus that “coaching is not about telling, it is about
10 asking and focusing. That is what separates mentoring from coach-
1 ing” (Allison & Harbour, 2009, p. 2). The other significant difference
2 often cited is the power relationship within the pairings. Coaching is
3 often defined as “non-heirarchical and does not depend on any
4 expert/subject specific knowledge” (ibid.). Passmore contrasts coach-
5 ing and mentoring in the following areas: level of formality, length of
6 contract, focus, level of sector knowledge, and training (2010, p. 5)
7 (Table 1.1).
8
9 Table 1.1. Contrasting coaching and mentoring (adapted from Passmore,
211 2010, p. 5).
1 Coaching Mentoring
2
Level of formality More formal: contract or Less formal: agreement, most
3
ground rules set, often typically between two
4 involving the coachee’s parties
5 line manager
6 Length of Shorter term: typically Longer term: typically,
7 engagement between 4 and 12 unspecified number of
8 meetings agreed over meetings with relationships
9 2 to 12 months often running over 3 to 5
30 years
1 Focus Focused on performance: Focused on career development:
typically, a greater focus typically, a concern with
2
on short-term skills and longer-term career issues,
3
job performance obtaining the right
4 experience
5 Level of sector More generalist: typically, More sector knowledge:
6 knowledge coaches have limited typically, mentors have
7 sector knowledge knowledge of organisation
8 or business sector
911 (continued)
16 COACHING IN EDUCATION

111 Table 1.1. (continued).


2 Coaching Mentoring
3
4 Training More relationship training: More management training:
5 typically, coaches have typically, mentors have a
training in coaching-related background in senior
6
skills management
7
Focus Dual focus: more typically Single focus: more typically a
8 a dual focus on the single focus on the needs of
9 needs of the individual the individual
10 and the needs of the
1 organisation
2
3
4 At the same time, many of the skills are similar. Coaches and
5 mentors need to be good listeners. They need to ask powerful ques-
6 tions. Often, both will encourage their clients to pursue their ambi-
711 tions and aspirations.
8 Rather than getting trapped in the debate over terminology,
9 perhaps it would be more helpful to consider coaching and mentoring
20 along a spectrum (Figure 1.1).
1
2
3
4
511
6
7 Figure 1.1. Coaching–mentoring continuum.
8
9
311 Purpose and intent
1
2 Depending on the situation and the desired outcome, a more or less
3 directive approach might be beneficial. For example, where the learner
4 displays low levels of motivation to make behavioural changes, a
5 more directive approach could be more helpful. Equally, in situations
6 where a significant amount of information is needed for a new team
7 member in a short period of time, an organisation might find that a
8 more directive approach is most appropriate. On the other hand, in
911 situations when the intention is to build self-esteem, independence, or
COACHING IN EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW 17

111 self-confidence, a non-directive approach is certainly more likely to


2 yield positive results.
3 Instructional coaching helpfully combines the non-directive ele-
4 ments of a collaborative way of working with some clearly directive
5 elements. To ensure good outcomes for both parties (and, if relevant,
6 their organisation), a negotiated agreement about the nature of the
711 relationship should precede the learning conversations. Fundamen-
8 tally, decisions about whether an interaction should be more or less
9 directive should be driven by assessing the best interests of the recip-
10 ient (coachee or mentee).
1
2
3 Definition of educational coaching
4
5 For the purposes of this book, we will use the following definition of
6 educational coaching: a one-to-one conversation focused on the
7 enhancement of learning and development through increasing self-
awareness and a sense of personal responsibility, where the coach
8
facilitates the self-directed learning of the coachee through question-
9
ing, active listening, and appropriate challenge in a supportive and
211
encouraging climate.
1
2
3 One-to-one
4 While some suggest that “group coaching” is possible, we hold that
5 coaching is most effective as a two-way conversation. Many of the
6 benefits associated with coaching result from the confidential, suppor-
7 tive, and encouraging context and trusting relationship between two
8 people. Once there are more than two people in a coaching relation-
9 ship, group dynamics add a level of complexity that can impinge of
30 the quality of trust and confidentiality. This is not to say that coaching
1 approaches cannot also be used in group situations, in meetings and
2 in the classroom. However, we believe that coaching is most effective
3 in a one-to-one situation.
4
5
Enhancement of learning and development through increasing
6
self-awareness and a sense of personal responsibility
7
8 Coaching in education focuses on enhancing learning and develop-
911 ment. This is done through increasing the self-awareness of the
18 COACHING IN EDUCATION

111 coachee, focusing primarily on strengths and existing resources. The


2 sense of personal responsibility can emerge from the non-directive
3 approach of the coach or a recognition that the coachee is best placed
4 to effect the changes that they would like to see.
5
6 Self-directed learning
7
8 We consider every coaching session to be a learning opportunity,
9 primarily for the coachee (who may be seen as the primary learner),
10 but also for the coach (secondary learner). Using a facilitative
1 approach, the coach creates the context in which the coachee directs
2 his or her own learning experience.
3
4 Questioning, active listening, and appropriate challenge
5 in a supportive and encouraging climate
6
As we will discuss in later chapters, we also believe that the activities
711
of questioning, listening, and challenging should be carried out in a
8 positive and encouraging climate. The coaching sessions should feel
9 supportive and motivational. This approach models ways of relating
20 that would be helpful in a broad range of educational and learning
1 contexts.
2 Educational coaching, as described in this book, sits very comfort-
3 ably at the non-directive end of the spectrum discussed above. We
4 believe that educational coaching supports the development of
511 responsibility, confidence, and self-esteem in learners through its non-
6 directive approach. These learning conversations encourage and
7 require the learner to find solutions and opportunities for themselves.
8
9
311
The evidence
1
2 Although coaching in education is a relatively young field, there is a
3 growing evidence base to support this area of work. Our interest in
4 educational coaching stems from the belief that it can, in a number of
5 different ways, positively affect learning experiences for both the
6 “teacher” and the “student” in educational settings.
7 Coaching has been shown to have a positive impact on instruc-
8 tional practice in the classroom in an in-depth US study (Brown,
911 Reumann-Moore, Hugh, Christman, & Riffer, 2008). Ross (1992) and
COACHING IN EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW 19

111 Shidler (2009) have demonstrated a clear link between the coaching of
2 teachers and the achievement of their students. This evidence con-
3 firms a seemingly logical conclusion: that if coaching can have a bene-
4 ficial impact on teachers, there would be a subsequent positive effect
5 for the learning experiences of students.
6 It has been shown that the coaching of teachers can increase levels
711 of student engagement (Brown, Reumann-Moore, Hugh, Christman,
8 & Riffer, 2008). We also know that the preconceived expectations of
9 teachers about their students can virtually predict performance levels
10 (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968). Coaching can play an important role in
1 supporting teachers to reflect on their practice in the classroom and
2 encourage the development of professional learning relationships
3 between educators (Brown, Reumann-Moore, Hugh, Christman, &
4 Riffer 2008).
5 Evers, Brouwers, and Tomic (2006) have shown that executive
6 coaching can lead to higher expectations about outcomes and self-effi-
7 cacy. These findings are endorsed by Green, Oades, and Grant (2006),
8 who demonstrated that life coaching increased goal attainment, well-
9 being, and hope. A further study confirmed that personal coaching for
211 students led to “significant increases in levels of cognitive hardiness
1 and hope” (Green, Grant, & Rynsaardt, 2007). These results were sup-
2 ported by Spence and Grant (2007), who found that professional coach-
3 ing for students increased goal commitment, goal attainment, and
4 environmental mastery. In a significant regional study in the UK,
5 Passmore and Brown (2009) found exam performance increased for
6 sixteen-year-old students in poorly performing schools. More recent
7 studies in the UK found that training secondary school students to
8 become coaches had a positive impact on attitudes to learning (see
9 Chapters Four and Eleven). Furthermore, Madden, Green, and Grant
30 (2011) found that the use of solution focused coaching supported
1 primary aged children in identifying their own strengths and resources.
2 By visualising a positive future, children improved their engagement
3 in learning as well as their sense of hope and improved wellbeing.
4
5
6 Coaching in education: next steps
7
8 As early as 2005, it was recognised that coaching in education was
911 important in the “quest to ensure that there are sufficient future
20 COACHING IN EDUCATION

111 leaders in the system to secure succession” (Creasy & Paterson, 2005)
2 and that “learning to be a coach or mentor is one of the most effective
3 ways of enabling teachers and leaders to become good and excellent
4 practitioners” (CUREE, 2005). As we have shown above, there is also
5 a growing body of evidence that points to significant benefits for
6 students and educators.
7 Our experience of working in schools, colleges, and universities
8 has shown us the potential impact of coaching on the way in which
9 educators teach and students learn. Throughout this book, there are
10 opportunities for self-reflection, suggestions for activities to enhance
1 your coaching skills, and proposals for effective ways of implement-
2 ing coaching within your educational organisation.
3 We will show how the creation of coaching cultures for learning
4 can enhance the educational experience for everyone involved in this
5 valuable enterprise. Educational institutions can encourage the devel-
6 opment of lifelong learners who are self-aware and responsible. At a
711 conference on coaching and positive psychology in education held on
8 2 July 2010, Sir John Whitmore challenged delegates to “teach less so
9 that the students can learn more”. What he was recommending was
20 that, as educators, we also have a responsibility to encourage the
1 development of the curiosity that comes naturally to all humans.
2 There is something liberating about the ability to be comfortable with
3 “not knowing”. Since the majority of people in an educational organ-
4 isation tend to be the “learners”, it makes sense that “not knowing” is
511 endorsed and celebrated. The anxiety about “not knowing”, coupled
6 with the pretence of “I know this already”, can create a toxic mix that
7 gets in the way of new learning opportunities. The first step is to lower
8 our own defences, to become more comfortable with saying “I don’t
9 know”, or “I don’t really understand it myself”. The infallible teacher
311 or infallible educational leader only adds to the anxiety of other learn-
1 ers. When a student realises that we all learn, and that the process of
2 learning involves the admission that we do not know everything, then
3 it is easier for the student to take on the stance of learner.
4 The fact that you are reading this book is good news for your
5 educational system! You are demonstrating that you are a learner who
6 is interested in harnessing coaching to enhance the learning experi-
7 ence of everyone in your educational organisation. The audience for
8 this book is both narrow and wide. It is narrow in the sense that this
911 book is focused on educational organisations. It is wide in the sense
COACHING IN EDUCATION: AN OVERVIEW 21

111 that it is aimed at anyone who is passionate about education and


2 believes in the principle that we are all lifelong learners.
3 In our experience of coaching within educational organisations, we
4 have discovered that strong personal experiences of education (good
5 or bad) are often motivating factors for some of our best educators.
6 They are energised by the intention of making the learning experience
711 as good as possible for others. They are passionate about removing
8 barriers to learning and aspiration. We are convinced that coaching
9 will support you to enhance the learning experience for everyone in
10 your educational organisation while harnessing the energy and posi-
1 tive thinking of others to support you in this valuable endeavour.
2
3
4 References
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2 Pennsylvania High School Coaching Initiative. Philadelphia, PA: Research
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911 strengths-based coaching for primary school students: enhancing
Another random document with
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condemned as pawings about. The Pinners never pawed, nor did any of
their friends. Nice, that was, thought Sally wistfully; knew where you were.
Among these here Lukes—so ran her dejected thoughts, with no intention
of irreverence but unable, from her habit of language, to run otherwise—
one never could tell where one wasn’t going to be kissed next. Hands, hair,
face—nothing seemed to come amiss to them when they once got going.
Kept one on the hop; made one squirmy. And Mr. Luke—he was different
here. But then he kept on being different. While as for that there lady——
At this point of her meditations Sally had turned her face to the pillow
and buried it, and to her surprise she found the pillow was wet, and on
looking into this she discovered that it was her own tears making it wet.
Then she was ashamed. But being ashamed didn’t stop her crying; once she
had begun she seemed to get worse every minute. And the little maid,
coming in with the hot water, had found her crying quite hard.

§
Mrs. Luke made short work of the little maid. She merely said, in that
gentle voice before which all servants went down flat as ninepins,
‘Hammond, I am surprised at your disturbing Mrs. Jocelyn’s sleep—’ and
the little maid, very red and with downcast eyes, sidled deprecatingly out of
the room.
Then Mrs. Luke took Sally in hand, sitting in her turn on the edge of the
bed.
‘Salvatia, dear—’ she said, laying her hand on the arm outlined beneath
the counterpane, and addressing the averted face. ‘Salvatia, dear——’
Sally’s tears dried up instantly, for she was much too much afraid to cry,
but she buried her face still deeper, and kept her eyes tight shut.
‘Don’t make confidences to a servant, dear child,’ said Mrs. Luke gently.
‘Come to Jocelyn, or to me. We’re the natural ones for you to come to in
any of your little troubles. Oh, I know honeymoons are trying for a girl, and
often, without knowing why, she wants a good cry. Isn’t it so, Salvatia?
Then come to me, or to your husband, when you feel like that, but don’t say
things to Hammond you may afterwards regret. You see, Salvatia dear,
you’re a lady, aren’t you—a grown-up married lady now, and your place is
with your husband and me. What, dear child? What did you say?’
Sally, however, hadn’t said anything; she had only gulped, trying to
choke down her misgivings at this picture of where her place was. With the
lady? ‘Shouldn’t be surprised,’ she thought, in great discomfort of mind as
she more and more perceived that her marriage was going to include Mrs.
Luke, ‘if I ain’t bitten off more as I can chew——’ and immediately was
shocked at herself for having thought it. Manners were manners. They had
to be inside one, as well as out. No good saying Excuse me, Pardon, and
Sorry, if inside you were thinking rude. God saw. God knew. And if you
were only polite with your lips, and it wasn’t going right through you, you
were being, as she remembered from her father’s teaching, a whited
sepulchre.
And Mrs. Luke, contemplating the profil perdu on the pillow, the tip of
the little ear, the lovely curve of the flushed cheek, and the tangle of bright
hair, bent down and kissed it with a view to comfort and encouragement,
and Sally, trying not to shrink farther into the pillow, said to herself, ‘At it
again.’
‘Why did you cry, Salvatia?’ asked Mrs. Luke, gently.
‘Dunno,’ murmured Sally, withdrawing into the furthermost corner of
her shell.
‘Then, dear, it was simply childish, wasn’t it—to cry without a reason,
and to cry before a servant too. Things like that lower one’s dignity,
Salvatia. And you haven’t only your own dignity to consider now, but
Jocelyn’s, your husband’s.’
‘Oh dear,’ sighed Sally to herself, recognising from the tone, through all
its gentleness, that she was being given What for—a new kind, and one
which it was extremely difficult to follow and understand, however
painstakingly she listened. Which parts, for instance, of herself and Mr.
Luke were their dignities? ‘Good job I ain’t a nursin’ mother,’ she thought,
for she knew all about nursing mothers, ‘or the lady’d turn my milk sour’—
and immediately was much shocked at herself for having thought it.
Manners were manners. They had to be inside one, as well as out. ‘Never
think what you wouldn’t say,’ had been her father’s teaching; and fancy
saying what she had just thought!
‘Oh Gawd,’ silently prayed Sally, who had been made to repeat a collect
every Sunday to Mr. Pinner, and in whose mind bits had stuck, ‘send down
the ’Oly Spirit and cleanse the thoughts of my ’eart with ’im forasmuch as
without thee I ain’t able to....’
‘Perhaps, dear,’ said Mrs. Luke, finding it difficult in the face of Sally’s
silence to go on—not for want of things to say, for there were so many and
all so important that she hardly knew where to begin,—‘the best thing you
can do is to bathe your eyes in the nice hot water Hammond has put ready,
and tidy yourself a little, and then come downstairs. What do you think of
that? Isn’t it a good idea? It is dull for you up here alone. But bathe your
eyes well. We don’t want Jocelyn to see we’ve been crying, do we, dear
child——’
And in the act of stooping to give Sally a parting kiss she heard her name
being called, loud and cheerily, downstairs in the hall.
She started to her feet.
‘Margery! Margery!’ called the voice, with the cheerful insistence of one
who, being betrothed, has the right to be cheerful and insistent in his
fiancée’s hall.
Edgar. Come hours before his time.

§
‘Oh, hush, hush——’ besought Mrs. Luke, hurrying down to him.
‘Hush, eh?’
‘Jocelyn——’
She glanced fearfully along the passage to the backdoor.
‘He’s arrived,’ said Mr. Thorpe, not hushing at all. ‘Know that. Saw his
—well, you can hardly call it a car, can you—his contraption, outside the
gate.’
‘But I haven’t had time yet to tell him——’
‘That he’s been a fool?’ interrupted Mr. Thorpe.
‘Come in here,’ said Mrs. Luke, taking him by the arm and pressing him
into the parlour, the door of which she shut.
‘Brought you this,’ said Mr. Thorpe, holding up a fish-basket, a big one,
in front of her face. ‘Salmon. Prime cut. Thought it would be a bit of
something worth eating for your—well, you don’t have dinner, do you—
meal, then, to-night. Came back early from the City on purpose to get it
here soon enough.’
‘How kind, how kind,’ murmured Mrs. Luke distractedly.
‘Plenty of it, too,’ said Mr. Thorpe, slapping the basket.
‘Too much, too much,’ murmured Mrs. Luke, not quite sure whether it
were the salmon she was talking about.
‘Too much? Not a bit of it,’ said Mr. Thorpe. ‘I hate skimp.’
And he was going to put down his present on the nearest chair and then,
she knew, fold her in one of those strong hugs that scrunched, when she
bent forward and hastily took the basket from him. She couldn’t, she simply
couldn’t, on this occasion be folded—not with Jocelyn sitting out there, all
unsuspecting, under the cedar.
‘Never mind the basket,’ said Mr. Thorpe, who felt he had deserved well
of Margery in this matter of the fish.
‘I must take it to the kitchen at once,’ said Mrs. Luke, evading his wide-
opened arms, ‘or it won’t be ready in time for supper.’
‘What? No thanks, eh?’
‘Yes, yes—afterwards,’ said Mrs. Luke, slipping away to the door.
‘Jocelyn doesn’t know yet. About us, I mean. I haven’t had time——’
‘Time, eh? Not had time to tell him, you’ve netted me?’
Mr. Thorpe took out his watch. ‘Five minutes,’ he said. ‘Two would be
enough, but I’ll give you five. Trot along now, and come back to me sharp
in five minutes. If you don’t, I’ll fetch you. Trot along.’
Trot along....
Mrs. Luke, shutting him into the parlour, asked herself, as she went
down the passage bearing the heavy basket in both her delicate hands, how
long it would take after marriage to weed out Mr. Thorpe’s language. To be
told to trot along, however, was so grotesque—she to trot, she, surely the
most dignified of South Winch’s ladies!—that it seemed to restore her
composure. She would not trot. Nor would she, in the emotional sphere, do
anything that corresponded to it. She would neither trot nor hurry; neither
physically, nor spiritually. She declined to be bound by five minutes, and a
watch in Edgar’s hand. Really he must, somehow, come up more to her
level, and not be so comfortably certain that she was coming down to his.
And what a way to speak of their marriage—that she had netted him!
Frozen, then, once more into calm by Mr. Thorpe’s words, she proceeded
down the passage with almost more than her usual dignity, and as she
passed the kitchen door she held out the fish-basket to the little maid, who
came out of the shady corner where the sink was with reluctance, merely
saying, ‘Boil it.’ Then, with her head held high as the heads of those are
held who face the inevitable, she went out into the garden, and crossed the
grass to where Jocelyn was waiting for her on the seat beneath the cedar.
This took her one minute out of the five. In another four Mr. Thorpe
would come out too into the garden, to see why she didn’t return. Let him,
thought Mrs. Luke, filled with the courage of the cornered. This thing
couldn’t be done in five minutes; it couldn’t be fired off at Jocelyn’s head
like a pistol. Foolish Edgar.

§
‘Well, Mother?’ said Jocelyn, getting up as she approached.
He had been smoking, content to leave whatever it was Sally had been
doing in his mother’s capable hands, yet wishing to goodness Sally hadn’t
done it. This trick of wanting to be with servants must revolt his mother. It
revolted him; how much more, then, his fastidious mother.
‘I can guess what it is, I’m afraid,’ he said, as she sat down beside him.
‘No,’ said Mrs. Luke. ‘You haven’t any idea.’
‘What has she been doing, Mother?’ he asked, seriously alarmed, and
throwing away his cigarette.
‘Salvatia? Nothing. Nothing that matters, poor dear child. It’s not about
her I want to talk. It’s about Mr. Thorpe.’
‘Mr. Thorpe?’
‘Yes. Abergeldie. That’s Mr. Thorpe’s. That’s why you are going there—
because it is Mr. Thorpe’s.’
‘But why should we——?’
‘Now Jocelyn,’ she interrupted, ‘please keep well in mind that Mr.
Thorpe is the most absolutely reliable, trustworthy, excellent, devoted man.
I can find no flaw in his character. He is generous to a fault—really to a
fault. He has a perfect genius for kindness. Indeed, I can’t tell you how
highly I think of him.’
Jocelyn’s heart went cold and heavy with foreboding.
There was a little silence.
‘Yes, Mother. And?’ he said, after a minute.
‘And he is rich. Very.’
‘Yes, Mother. And?’ said Jocelyn, as she paused.
‘When I got your first letter I was, of course, very much upset,’ said
Mrs. Luke, looking straight in front of her.
‘Yes, Mother. And?’ said Jocelyn, for she paused again.
‘Everything seemed to go to pieces—all I had believed in and hoped
for.’
There was a longer pause.
‘Yes, Mother. And?’ said Jocelyn at last, keeping his voice as level as
possible.
‘I’m not a religious woman, as you know. I hadn’t got God.’
‘No, Mother. So?’
‘So I—I turned to Mr. Thorpe.’
‘Yes, Mother. Quite.’
The bitterness of Jocelyn’s soul was complete. A black fog of anger,
jealousy, wounded trust, hurt pride and cruellest disappointment engulfed
him.
‘Why not say at once,’ he said, lighting another cigarette with hands he
was grimly determined should be perfectly steady, ‘that you are going to
marry him?’
‘If it hadn’t been for your marriage it never would have happened,’ said
Mrs. Luke.
‘Quite,’ said Jocelyn, very bitter, pitching the newly-lit cigarette away.
‘Oh, quite.’
Sally again. Always, at the bottom of everything, Sally.
Then he thought, ashamed, ‘My God, I’m a mean cur’—and sat in
silence, his head in his hands, not looking up at all, while his mother did her
best to make him see Mr. Thorpe as she wanted him to be seen.
In her low voice, the low, educated voice Jocelyn had so much loved,
she explained Mr. Thorpe and his advantages, determined that at this
important, this vital moment she would not allow herself to be vexed by
anything Jocelyn said.
He, however, said nothing. It simply was too awful for speech—his
mother, who never during his whole life had shown signs of wanting to
marry, going now, now that she was at an age when she might surely, in
Jocelyn’s twenty-two year old vision, be regarded as immune, to give
herself to a complete stranger, and leave him, her son who needed her, God
knew, more than ever before, to his fate. That he should hate this Thorpe
with a violent hatred seemed natural. Who cared for his damned money?
Why should Sally—his mother kept on harping on that—be going to be
expensive? As if money, much money, according to what his mother was
saying, now that Sally had come on the scene, Sally who was used to being
penniless, was indispensable. Masters? What need was there for masters?
His mother could teach her. Clothes? Why, whatever she put on seemed to
catch beauty from her—he had seen that in the shop in London where he
bought the wrap: every blessed thing the women tried on her, however
unattractive to begin with, the minute it touched her body became part of
beauty. And how revolting, anyhow—marriage. Oh, how he hated the
thought of it, how he wanted now beyond anything in the world to be away
from its footling worries and complications, away from women altogether,
and back at Cambridge, back in a laboratory, absorbed once more in the
great tranquil splendours of research!
‘He is in the sitting-room,’ said Mrs. Luke, when she had said everything
she could think of that she wished Jocelyn to suppose was true.
‘Who is?’ said Jocelyn.
‘Ah, I was afraid you would be angry,’ she said, putting her hand on his
arm, ‘but I hoped that when it was all explained you would understand, and
see the great, the immense advantages. Apparently you don’t, or——’ she
sighed—‘won’t. Then I must be patient till you do, or will. But Mr. Thorpe
is waiting.’
‘Who cares?’ inquired Jocelyn, his head in his hands; and it suddenly
struck Mrs. Luke that Mr. Thorpe was waiting very quietly. The five
minutes must have been up long ago; she must have been sitting there quite
twenty, and yet he hadn’t come after her as he had threatened. Knowing
him, as she did, for a man absolutely of his word, this struck her as odd.
‘Dear Jocelyn,’ she said, remembering the fits of dark obstinacy that had
at times seized her boy in his childhood, and out of which he had only been
got by the utmost patience and gentleness, ‘I won’t bother you to come in
now and see Mr. Thorpe. But as he is going to be your host to-night——’
‘He isn’t,’ said Jocelyn, his head still in his hands, and his eyes still fixed
on the grass at his feet.
‘But, dearest boy——’
‘I decline to go near him.’
‘But there’s positively no room here for you both——’
‘There’s London, and hotels, I suppose?’
‘Oh, Jocelyn!’
She looked at him in dismay. He didn’t move. She again put her hand on
his arm. He took no notice. And aware, from past experiences, that for the
next two hours at least he would probably be completely inaccessible to
reason, she got up with a sigh and left him.
Well, she had told him; she had done what she had to do. She would now
go back to Mr. Thorpe.
And she did go back; and opening the parlour door slowly and gently,
for she was absorbed in painful thought, she found Mr. Thorpe sitting on the
sofa, busily kissing Sally.
X

§
The following brief dialogue had taken place between him and Sally, before
he began to kiss:
‘Crikey!’ he exclaimed, on her appearing suddenly in the doorway.
‘Pardon?’ said she, hesitating, and astonished to find a strange old
gentleman where she had thought to find the Lukes.
‘It’s crikey all right,’ he said, staring. ‘Know who I am?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Sir, eh?’
He took a step forward and shut the door.
‘Father—that’s who I am. Yours. Father-in-law. Same thing as father,
only better,’ said he. ‘What does one do to a father, eh? Kisses him. How
do, daughter. Kiss me.’
Sally kissed him; or rather, having no reason to doubt that the old
gentleman was what he said he was, docilely submitted while he kissed her,
regarding his behaviour as merely another example of the inability of all
Lukes to keep off pawings; and though she was mildly surprised at the
gusto with which this one gave himself up to them, she was pleased to
notice his happy face. If only everybody would be happy she wouldn’t mind
anything. She hadn’t felt that the lady’s kisses were expressions of
happiness, and Mr. Luke’s, when he started, made her think of a funeral that
had got the bit between its teeth and couldn’t stop running away, more than
of anything happy. Father-in-law, on the contrary, seemed as jolly as a sand-
boy. And anyhow it was better than having to talk.
This was the way the situation arose in which Mrs. Luke found them.
‘Making friends with my new daughter,’ said Mr. Thorpe, not without
confusion, on perceiving her standing looking on.
‘Quite,’ said Mrs. Luke, who sometimes talked like Jocelyn.

§
Now to have caught Mr. Thorpe kissing somebody else—she didn’t like
it when he kissed her, but she discovered she liked it still less when it was
somebody else—was painful to Mrs. Luke. Every aspect of it was painful.
The very word caught was an unpleasant one; and she felt that to be placed
in a position in life in which she might be liable to catch would be most
disagreeable. What she saw put everything else for the moment out of her
head. Edgar must certainly be told that he couldn’t behave like this. No
marriage could stand it. If a woman couldn’t trust her husband not to
humiliate her, whom could she trust? And to behave like this to Salvatia, of
all people! Salvatia, who was to live with them at Abergeldie during term
time, while Jocelyn pursued his career undisturbed at Cambridge—this had
been another of Mrs. Luke’s swift decisions,—live with them, and be given
advantages, and be trained to become a fit wife for him,—how could any of
these plans be realised if Edgar’s tendency to kiss, of which Mrs. Luke had
only been too well aware, but which she had supposed was concentrated
entirely on herself, included also Salvatia?
And if the situation was disagreeable to Mrs. Luke, it was very nearly as
disagreeable to Mr. Thorpe. He didn’t like it one little bit. He knew quite
well that there had been gusto in his embrace, and that Margery must have
seen it. ‘Damn these women,’ he thought, unfairly.
The only person without disagreeable sensations was Sally, who,
unconscious of anything but dutiful behaviour, was standing wiping her
face with a big, honest-looking handkerchief, observing while she did so
that she wasn’t half hot.
‘Jocelyn is in the garden, Salvatia,’ said Mrs. Luke.
Regarding this as mere news, imparted she knew not to what end, Sally
could think of nothing to say back, though it was evident from the lady’s
eyes that she was expected to make some sort of a reply. She searched,
therefore, in her répertoire, and after a moment said, ‘Fancy that,’ and went
on wiping her face.
‘Won’t you go to him?’ then said Mrs. Luke, speaking very distinctly.
‘Right O,’ said Sally, hastily then, for the lady’s eyebrows had suddenly
become rather frightening; and, stuffing the handkerchief yard by yard into
her pocket as she went, she exquisitely slid away.
‘I’ll be off too,’ said Mr. Thorpe briskly, who for the first time didn’t feel
at home with Margery. ‘Back on the tick of ten to fetch ’em both——’
‘Oh, but please—wait just one moment,’ said Mrs. Luke, raising her
hand as he began to move towards the door.
‘Got to have my wigging first, eh?’ he said, pausing and squaring his
shoulders to meet it.
‘What is a wigging, Edgar?’ inquired Mrs. Luke gently, opening her
clear grey eyes slightly wider.
‘Oh Lord, Margery, cut the highbrow cackle,’ said Mr. Thorpe. ‘Why
shouldn’t I kiss the girl? She’s my daughter-in-law. Or will be soon.’
‘Really, Edgar, it would be very strange if you didn’t wish to kiss her,’
said Mrs. Luke, still with gentleness. ‘Anybody would wish to.’
‘Well, then,’ said Mr. Thorpe sulkily; for not only didn’t he see what
Margery was driving at, but for the first time he didn’t think her particularly
good-looking. Moth-eaten, thought Mr. Thorpe, eyeing her. A lady, of
course, and all that; but having to sleep later on with a moth-eaten lady
wouldn’t, it suddenly struck him, be much fun. ‘Need a pitch dark night to
turn her into a handsome woman,’ he thought indelicately; but then he was
angry, because he had been discovered doing wrong.
‘I wanted to tell you,’ said Mrs. Luke, ignoring for the moment what she
had just witnessed, ‘that I have told Jocelyn.’
And Mr. Thorpe was so much relieved to find she wasn’t pursuing the
kissing business further that he thought, ‘Not a bad old girl, Marge—’ in his
thoughts he called her Marge, though not to her face because she didn’t like
it—‘not a bad old girl. Better than Annie, anyhow.’
Yes, better than Annie; but less good—ah, how much less good—than
young beauty.
‘That’s all right, then,’ he said, cheerful again. ‘Nothing like coughing
things up.’
No—Edgar was too rough a diamond, Mrs. Luke said to herself,
shrinking from this dreadful phrase. She hadn’t heard this one before. Was
there no end to his dreadful phrases?
‘He is much annoyed,’ she said, her eyebrows still drawn together with
the pain Mr. Thorpe’s last sentence had given her.
‘Annoyed, eh? Annoyed, is he? I like that,’ said Mr. Thorpe vehemently,
his cheerfulness vanishing. Annoyed because his mother was making a
rattling good match? Annoyed because the richest man for miles round was
taking her on for the rest of her life? Of all the insolent puppies....
Mr. Thorpe had no words with which to express his opinion of Jocelyn;
no words, that is, fit for a drawing-room—he supposed the room he was in
would be called a drawing-room, though he was blest if there was a single
stick of stuff in it to justify such a name—for, having now seen Sally, his
feeling for Jocelyn, which had been one of simple contemptuous
indifference, had changed into something much more active. Fancy him
getting her, he thought—him, with only a beggarly five hundred a year,
him, who wouldn’t even be able to dress her properly. Why, a young beauty
like that ought to be a blaze of diamonds, and never put her feet to the
ground except to step out of a Rolls.
‘I’m very sorry, Edgar,’ said Mrs. Luke, ‘but he says he doesn’t wish to
accept your hospitality.’
‘Doesn’t wish, eh? Doesn’t wish, does he? I like that,’ said Mr. Thorpe,
more vehemently still.
That his good-natured willingness to help Marge out of a fix, and his
elaborate preparations for the comfort of the first guests he had had for
years should be flouted in this way not only angered but hurt him. And what
would the servants say? And he had taken such pains to have the bridal
suite filled with everything calculated to make the young prig, who thought
his sorts of brains were the only ones worth having, see for himself that
they weren’t. Brains, indeed. What was the good of brains that you couldn’t
get enough butter out of to butter your bread properly? Dry-bread brains,
that’s what this precious prig’s were. Crust-and-cold-water brains. Brains?
Pooh.
This last word Mr. Thorpe said out loud; very loud; and Mrs. Luke
shrank again. It strangely afflicted her when he said pooh.
‘And I’m afraid,’ she went on, her voice extra gentle, for it did seem to
her that considering the position she had found him in Edgar was behaving
rather high-handedly, ‘that if he knew you had kissed his wife, kissed her in
the way you did kiss her, he might still less wish to.’
‘Now we’ve got it!’ burst out Mr. Thorpe, slapping his thigh. ‘Now we’re
getting down to brass tacks!’
‘Brass tacks, Edgar?’ said Mrs. Luke, to whom this expression, too, was
unfamiliar.
‘Spite,’ said Mr. Thorpe.
‘Spite?’ repeated Mrs. Luke, her grey eyes very wide.
‘Feminine spite. Don’t believe a word about him not wanting to come
and stay at my place. You’ve made it up. Because I kissed the girl.’
And Mr. Thorpe in his anger inquired of Mrs. Luke whether she had ever
heard about hell holding no fury like a woman scorned—for in common
with other men who know little poetry he knew that—and he also called her
Marge to her face, because he no longer saw any reason why he shouldn’t.
‘My dear Edgar,’ was all she could find to say, her shoulders drawn up
slightly to her ears as if to ward off these blows of speech, violence never
yet having crossed her path.
She didn’t get angry herself. She behaved with dignity. She remembered
that she was a lady.
She did, however, at last suggest that perhaps it would be better if he
went away, for not only was he making more noise than she cared about—
really a most noisy man, she thought, gliding to the window and softly
shutting it—but it had occurred to her as a possibility that Salvatia, out in
the back garden, might be telling Jocelyn that Mr. Thorpe had kissed her,
and that on hearing this Jocelyn, who in any case was upset, might be
further upset into coming and joining Edgar and herself in the sitting-room.
This, she was sure, would be a pity; so she suggested to Mr. Thorpe that
he should go.
‘Oh, I’m going all right,’ said Mr. Thorpe, who somehow, instead of
being the one to be wigged, was the one who was wigging.
‘We’ll talk it all over quietly to-morrow, dear Edgar,’ said Mrs. Luke,
attempting to placate.
‘Dear Edgar, eh?’ retorted Mr. Thorpe, not to be shaken by fair words
from his conviction that Marge regarded herself as a woman scorned, and
therefore that she outrivalled the worst of the ladies of hell. ‘Fed-up Edgar’s
more like it,’ he said; and strode, banging doors, out of the house.

§
Mrs. Luke stood motionless where he had left her. What an unexpected
turn things had taken. How very violent Edgar really was; and how rude. A
woman scorned? Feminine spite? Such expressions, applied to herself,
would be merely ludicrous if they hadn’t, coming from Edgar in connection
with Salvatia, been so extraordinarily rude.
In connection with Salvatia. She paused on the thought. All this was
because of Salvatia. From beginning to end, everything unpleasant and
difficult that had happened to her during the last few weeks was because of
Salvatia.
But she mustn’t be unfair. If Salvatia had been the cause of her
engagement to Edgar, she was now being the cause of its breaking off. For
surely, surely, breaking off was the only course to take?
‘Let me think,’ said Mrs. Luke, pressing her hand to her forehead, which
was burning.
Yes; surely no amount of money could make up for the rest of Edgar?
Surely no amount, however great, could make up for the hourly fret and
discomfort of having to live with the wrong sort—no, not necessarily the
wrong sort, but the entirely different sort, corrected Mrs. Luke, at pains to
be just—of mind? Besides, of what use could she be to Jocelyn and
Salvatia, married to Edgar, if Jocelyn wouldn’t go near him, and Salvatia
couldn’t because of his amorousness? It would merely make the cleavage
between herself and Jocelyn complete at the very moment when he more
than ever before in his life needed her. And the grotesqueness of accusing
her, who had remained so quiet and calm, of being a fury, the sheer
imbecility of imagining her actuated by feminine spite! Really, really, said
Mrs. Luke to herself, drawing her shoulders up to her ears again at the
recollection. And then there was—no, she turned her mind away from those
expressions of his; she positively couldn’t bear to think of cough it up,
bunkum, and pooh.
She went to her little desk and sat down to write a letter to Mr. Thorpe,
because in some circumstances letters are so much the best; nor did she
want to lose any time, in case it should occur to him too to write a letter,
and it seemed to her important that when it comes to shedding anybody one
should get there first, and be the shedder rather than the shed; and she had
got as far as Dear Edgar, I feel that I owe it to you—when Jocelyn appeared
in the doorway, with blazing eyes.

§
What had taken place in the garden between Jocelyn and Sally was this:
She had gone out obediently to him, as she had been told. ‘Do as you’re
told,’ her father and mother had taught her, ‘and not much can go wrong
with you.’ Innocent Pinners. Inadequate teaching. It was to lead her, before
she had done, into many difficulties.
She went, then, as she had been told, over to where she saw Jocelyn, and
sat down beside him beneath the cedar.
He didn’t move, and didn’t look up, and she sat for a long while not
daring to speak, because of the expression on his face.
Naturally she thought it was his stomach again, for what else could it be?
Last time she had seen him he was smiling as happy as happy, and kissing
his mother’s hand. Clear to Sally as daylight was it that he was having
another of those attacks to which her father had been such a martyr, and
which were familiar to the Pinners under the name of the Dry Heaves. So
too had her father sat when they came on, frowning hard at nothing, and
looking just like ink. The only difference was that Jocelyn, she supposed
because of being a gentleman, held his head in his hands, and her father
held the real place the heaves were in. But presently, when the simple
remedy he took on these occasions had begun to work, he was better; and it
seemed to Sally a great pity that she should be too much afraid of Usband to
tell him about it,—a great pity, and wrong as well. Hadn’t she promised
God in church the day she was married to look after him in sickness and in
health? And here he was sick, plain as a pikestaff.
So at last she pulled her courage together, and did tell him.
‘Father’s stomach,’ she began timidly, ‘was just like that.’
‘What?’ said Jocelyn, roused from his black thoughts by this surprising
remark, and turning his head and looking at her.
‘You got the same stomachs,’ said Sally, shrinking under his look but
continuing to hold on to her courage, ‘you and Father ’as. Like as two
peas.’
Jocelyn stared at her. What, in the name of all that was fantastic, had
Pinner’s stomach to do with him?
‘Sit just like that, ’e would, when they come on,’ continued Sally,
lashing herself forward.
‘Do you mind,’ requested Jocelyn with icy politeness, ‘making yourself
clear?’
‘Now, Mr. Luke, don’t—please don’t talk that way, begged Sally. ‘I only
want to tell you what Father did when they come on.’
‘When what comes on, and where?’
‘These ’ere dry ’eaves,’ said Sally. ‘You’d be better if you’d take what
Father did. ’Ad them somethin’ awful, ’e did. And you’d be better——’
But her voice faded away. When Jocelyn looked at her like that and said
not a word, her voice didn’t seem able to go on talking, however hard she
tried to make it.
And Jocelyn’s thoughts grew if possible blacker. This was to be his life’s
companion—his life’s, mind you, he said to himself. Alone and unaided, he
was to live out the years with her. A child; and presently not a child. A
beauty; and presently not a beauty. But always to the end, now that his
mother had deserted him, unadulterated Pinner.
‘There’s an h in heaves,’ he said, glowering at her, his gloom really
inspissate. ‘I don’t know what the beastly things are, but I’m sure they’ve
got an h in them.’
‘Sorry,’ breathed Sally humbly, casting down her eyes before his look.
Then he became aware of the unusual flush on her face,—one side was
quite scarlet.
‘Why are you so red?’ he asked suddenly.
‘Me?’ said Sally, starting at the peremptoriness in his tone. ‘Oh—that.’
She put up her hand and felt her burning cheek. ‘Father-in-law,’ she said.
‘Father who?’ asked Jocelyn, astonished out of his gloom.
‘In-law,’ said Sally. ‘ ’Im in the ’ouse. The old gentleman,’ she
explained, as Jocelyn stared in greater and greater astonishment.
Thorpe? The man who was to be his stepfather? But why——?
A flash of something quite, quite horrible darted into his mind. ‘But
why,’ he asked, ‘are you so very red? What has that to do——?’
He broke off, and caught hold of her wrist.
‘Daresay it ain’t the gentleman’s day for shavin’,’ suggested Sally.
And on Jocelyn’s flinging away her wrist and jumping up, she watched
him running indoors with recovered complacency. ‘Soon be better now,’ she
said to herself, pleased; for her father always ran like that too, just when the
heaves were going to leave off.
§
And she was right. Next time she saw him, which was at supper, he was
quite well. His face had cleared, he could eat his food, and he kissed the top
of her head as he passed behind her to his chair.
‘Well, that’s over,’ thought Sally, much relieved, though still remaining,
through her lowered eyelashes, watchful and cautious. With these Lukes
one never knew what was going to happen next; and as she sat doing her
anxious best with the forks and other pitfalls of the meal, and the little maid
came in and out, free in her movements, independent, able to give notice
and go at any moment she chose, Sally couldn’t help comparing her lot with
her own, and thinking that Ammond was singularly blest. And then she
thought what a wicked girl she was to have such thoughts, and bent her
head lower over her plate in shame, and Mrs. Luke said gently, ‘Sit up, dear
child.’
That night a bed was made for Jocelyn on the sitting-room sofa, Sally
slept upstairs in the tiny Spartan room he used to sleep in, and Abergeldie
wasn’t mentioned. Nor did they have Mr. Thorpe’s salmon for supper,
because the idea of eating poor Edgar’s gift seemed, in the circumstances,
cynical to Mrs. Luke; so Hammond ate it, and never afterwards could be got
to touch fish.
Mr. Thorpe had now become poor Edgar to Mrs. Luke. Only a few hours
before, he had been thought of as a godsend. Well, he shouldn’t have kissed
Salvatia. But indeed what a mercy that he had, for it brought clarity into
what had been troubled and obscure. Without this action—and it wasn’t just
kissing, it was enjoyment—Mrs. Luke would, she knew, have gone
stumbling on, doing her duty by him, trying to get everybody to like each
other and be happy in the way that was so obviously the best for them, the
way which would quite certainly have been the best for them if poor Edgar
had been as decent as, at his age, it was reasonable to expect. She could, she
was sure, have managed Jocelyn, for had she not managed him all his life?
And after marriage she could, she had no doubt, have managed Edgar too;
but what hard work it would have been, what a ceaseless weeding, to take
only one aspect of him, of his language!
The enjoyment—it was the only word for it—with which he had kissed
Salvatia had spared her all these pains. Certainly it was beneath her dignity,
beyond her patience, altogether outside any possible compensation by
wealth, to marry and manage a man who enjoyed kissing other women.
That she couldn’t do. She could do much, but not that. Like the Canon’s
wife, she would have forgiven everything except enjoyment. And she wrote
an urbane letter—why not? Surely finality can afford to be urbane?—after
having had a talk with Jocelyn when he arrived with blazing eyes in the
sitting-room, a talk which began in violence—his,—and continued in
patience—hers,—and ended in peace—theirs; and by the time they sat
down to supper the letter, sealed—it seemed to be the sort of letter one
ought to seal—was already lying in the pillar box at the corner of the road,
and the last trying weeks were wiped out as though they had never been.
At least, that was Mrs. Luke’s firm intention, that they should be wiped
out; and she thought as she gazed at Jocelyn, so content again, eating a
supper purged of the least reminder of Mr. Thorpe, that the status quo ante
was now thoroughly restored. Ah, happy status quo ante, thought Mrs.
Luke, whose mind was well-furnished with pieces of Latin, happy status
quo ante, with her boy close knit to her again, more than ever unable to do
without her, and she in her turn finding the very breath of her being and
reason for her existence in him and all his concerns. Not a cloud was now
between them. She had quickly reassured him as to Salvatia’s red cheek,—
Mr. Thorpe’s greeting, she had explained, was purely perfunctory, and
witnessed by herself, but the child had such a delicate skin that a touch
would mark it.
‘You mustn’t ever bruise her,’ she had said, smiling. ‘It would show for
weeks.’
‘Oh, Mother!’ Jocelyn had said, smiling too, so happy, he too, to know
he had been lifted out of the region of angers, out of the black places where
people bruise hearts, not bodies, and in so doing mangle their own.
Yes, she could manage Jocelyn. Tact and patience were all that was
needed. Never, never should he know of Edgar’s amorousness, any more
than he was ever, ever to know of Edgar’s other drawbacks. Let him think
of him in the future as the kind, reliable rich man who once had wanted to
marry her, but whom she had refused for her boy’s sake. She made this
sacrifice willingly, happily, for her darling son—so she gave Jocelyn to
understand, during the talk they had alone together in the sitting-room.
The truth? No, not altogether the truth, she admitted as she sat eating her
supper, her pure, pure supper, with all those horrible gross delicacies, under
which she had so long groaned, banished out of sight, her glance resting
fondly first on her boy, and then in amazed admiration, renewed with a start
each time she looked at her, on the flame of loveliness that was her boy’s
wife. No; what she had said to Jocelyn in the sitting-room wasn’t altogether
the truth, she admitted that, but the mutilated form of it called tact. Or,
rather, not mutilated, which suggested disfigurement, but pruned. Pruned
truth. Truth pruned into acceptability to susceptibility. Was not that tact?
Was not that the nearest one dared go in speech with the men one loved?
They seemed not able to bear truth whole. Children, they were. And the
geniuses—she smiled proudly and fondly at Jocelyn’s dark head bent over
his plate—were the simplest children of them all.
Yes, she thought, the status quo ante was indeed restored, and everything
was going to be as it used to be. The only difference was Salvatia.

§
Before a week was over Mrs. Luke left out the word ‘only’ from this
sentence, and was inclined to say—again with Wordsworth; curious how
that, surely antiquated, poet cropped up—But oh, the difference, instead.
Salvatia was—well, why had one been given intelligence if not to cope,
among other things, with what Salvatia was?
That first night of reunion with Jocelyn, Mrs. Luke had lain awake
nearly all of it, making plans. Very necessary, very urgent it was to get them
cut and dried by the morning. The headache she had had earlier in the
evening vanished before the imperativeness of thinking and seeing clearly.
Many things had to be thought out and decided, some of them sordid, such
as the question of living now that there was another mouth to feed, and
others difficult, such as the best line to take with South Winch in regard to
Mr. Thorpe. She thought and thought, lying on her back, her hands clasped
behind her head, staring into the darkness, frowning in her concentration.
Towards morning she saw that the line to take with South Winch about
poor Edgar was precisely the line she had taken with Jocelyn: she had given
up the hope of marriage, she would say, so as to be able to devote herself
exclusively to her boy and his wife.
‘See,’ she would say, indicating Salvatia, careful at once to draw
attention to what anyhow, directly the child began to speak, couldn’t remain
unnoticed, ‘how this untrained, delicious baby needs me. No mother, no
education, no idea of what the world demands—could I possibly, thinking
only of myself, selfishly leave her without help and guidance? I do feel the
young have a very great claim on us.’ And then she would add that as long
as she lived she would never forget how well, how splendidly, Mr. Thorpe
had behaved.
Pruned truth, again. And truth pruned, she was afraid, in a way that
would cover her with laurels she hadn’t deserved. But what was she to do?
One needs must find the easiest and best way out of a difficulty,—easiest
and best for those one loves.
In order, however, to indicate Salvatia and explain things by means of
her, Mrs. Luke would have to produce her, have to show her to South
Winch, and in order to do that she would have to give a party. Yes; she
would give a party, a tea-party, and invite every one she knew to it—except,
of course, Mr. Thorpe.
Mrs. Luke had hitherto been sparing of parties, considering them not
only difficult with one servant, and wastefully expensive, but also so very
ordinary. Anybody not too positively poor could give tea-parties, and invite
a lot of people and let them entertain each other. She chose the better way,
which was to have one friend, at most two, at a time, and really talk, really
exchange ideas, over a simple but attractive tea. Of course the friends had to
have ideas, or one couldn’t exchange them. But now she would have a real
party, with no ideas and many friends, the sort of party called an At Home,
and at it Salvatia should be revealed to South Winch in all her wonder.
The party, however, couldn’t be given for at least a week, because of first
having to drill Salvatia. A week wasn’t much; was, indeed, terribly little;
but if the drill were intensive, Mrs. Luke thought she could get the child’s
behaviour into sufficient shape to go on with by the end of it.
Hidden indoors—and in any case they would both at first hide indoors
from a possible encounter with poor Edgar—she would devote the whole of
every day to exercising Salvatia in the art of silence. That was all she
needed to be perfect: silence. And how few words were really necessary for
a girl with a face like that! No need whatever to exert herself,—her face did
everything for her. Yes; no; please; thank you; what couldn’t be done with
just these, if accompanied by that heavenly smile? Why, if she kept only to
these, if she carefully refrained from more, from, especially, the use of any
out of her own deplorable stock, it wouldn’t even be necessary for Mrs.

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