| dc.description.abstract | edwell was established in 2020 by former educators to improve educator wellbeing and increase teacher retention through wellness coaching (edwell, n.d.). The organization operates as a non-profit and partners with about 17 school districts across the United States (edwell, n.d.). edwell supports teachers and districts through various coaching services, including individual wellness coaching.
Our project aims to provide greater clarity for edwell’s staff around the effectiveness of their coaching model. Two key components of edwell’s individual wellness coaching program include edwell’s Wellbeing Inventory and experiments. To better understand the effectiveness of the Wellbeing Inventory and experiments, we conducted a qualitative study through semi-structured interviews focused on understanding clients’ and coaches’ perspectives on the effectiveness of these components. Our project sought to answer the following questions: (1) how do coaches implement the edwell model in coaching sessions; (2) how do edwell’s clients perceive the effectiveness of the edwell model in improving clients’ wellbeing; (3) how do edwell’s coaches perceive the effectiveness of the edwell model in improving their clients’ wellbeing.
From our data analysis, we identified the following findings: (1) all coaches felt a sense of autonomy in implementing the edwell coaching model, including using edwell’s tools and structures to assist in their coaching; (2) all clients found experiments to positively impact their wellbeing when the experiments were impactful and doable in their work settings; (3) overall, clients found the Wellbeing Inventory to increase self-awareness when used at the beginning of the coaching cycle; (4) most coaches found the Wellbeing Inventory to support clients’ wellbeing, but the Wellbeing Inventory usage by coaches varied; (5) some edwell coaches felt that edwell’s leaders were responsive; (6) coaches of color perceive racial and ethnic representation as critical for edwell's mission; (7) all coaches felt aligned with edwell’s mission; (8) the majority of coaches felt edwell’s compensation is lacking.
Based on these findings and extant literature, we suggest the following recommendations: (1) continue to prioritize coaches’ autonomy in coaching sessions, scheduling, and tools; (2) provide an index of experiments to support coaches and clients in selecting experiments that are meaningful and doable in their work environments; (3) provide increased structure for coaches about how to effectively use the Wellbeing Inventory to impact clients’ competency; (4) continue further analysis on how coaches perceive edwell’s leaders and seek out opportunities to build relatedness between leaders and coaches; (5) complete further focus groups and interviews with clients and coaches who identify as people of color to understand their unique perspectives; and (6) complete further research and analysis to understand coaches’ mission engagement levels and if feelings about compensation impact engagement levels. | |
