ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the key tenets of a social constructionist and critical framework applied to teaching student-coaches in a graduate program. The purpose is to give “intellectual anchors” that support thinking about coaching, teaching, and research about coaching from this perspective. A constructionist perspective to teaching means positioning the student-coaches, as well as me, the tutor, as relational and sociohistorical entities that can only be understood in context and as reflexive. The teaching approach in this case is more than merely passing on “survival tips", “tricks of the trade” (Cushion, Ford & Williams 2012), or pre-packaged knowledge. Instead, the approach highlights how the program looks to critical reflection that focuses on probing sociocultural distortions, coaching ideology, and taken-for-granted coaching cultures and systems. To this end, the chapter outlines teaching strategies, student tasks, and activities underpinned by the assumptions of the approach that reach into the student-coaches’ realities.
