Advancing coaching and mentoring when facilitating lesson and learning study

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Introduction

Facilitating lesson and learning study (LS) is a multifaceted endeavour. Besides knowledge of LS, facilitating LS requires a great deal of skill and effort to know when to lead and when to step back in the process (Mynott & Michel, 2022). To do this, facilitators tend to draw on a range of coaching and mentoring models such as, technical, problem-solving, reflective, peer, instructional and student-focused coaching (Hasbrouck & Michel, 2022). The coaching and mentoring models that facilitators draw on depend on a number of factors that include (but are not limited to) the school context in which they are working, the group of teachers who they are working with (whether they are new to LS), the size of the group, the group dynamics and how these develop during facilitation, the time limitations for doing LS. Besides contextual boundaries, there are also personal factors that include one’s positionality as an insider or outsider to the school context, and personal theories, that is, one’s personal beliefs, values, and knowledge of facilitating LS. This leads to a multitude of approaches that facilitators can take as they work with teachers during LS. These mediating mechanisms act as intermediate factors about how and why facilitators act (facilitate) LS the way they do. There is, indeed, a need to better articulate the work of facilitation in LS (Lewis, 2016). Thus, the aim of this special issue is as follows:

• To further theorise facilitation in lesson and learning study through the utilisation of coaching, mentoring, and facilitation models.
• To advance knowledge and understanding of facilitation in lesson and learning study through exemplification of practice.  

These aims will be met through the papers in the special issue responding to one or both aims through theorising facilitation, that is, how coaching, mentoring and/or facilitation overlap in lesson and learning study, and through exemplification of exemplary practice – that is, methods, approaches, techniques, or actions recognized as of high standard, serving as a robust model that others may draw upon or emulate. 

List of Topic Areas

• Facilitators as brokers in boundary crossing: Exploring ways in which facilitators navigate different pedagogical values in teacher education programmes using LS
• Theorise facilitation in lesson and learning study through utilisation of coaching, mentoring and/or facilitation models
• Research on mediating mechanisms that shape facilitation in lesson and learning study
• Studies on how facilitators structure talk at different levels, which communication strategies improve teacher talk, and how they orchestrate participation by adjusting when to step in and step back so that teachers own the work
• Case studies, in the form of narratives, focusing on learning from facilitation in practice and the roles or models of facilitation, coaching and mentoring that are used
• Research on how coaching and mentoring support collaborative work and learning in professional development, highlighting also 'what to avoid' practices
• Studies on how facilitators ensure role clarity by, for example, assigning roles; and set expectations and routines by using shared protocols for collaboration
• Problematising the insider-outsider status of facilitators, for example, related to their knowledge of the school context and the teachers, and expertise in LS, facilitating LS and content and pedagogical knowledge
• Studies on the design, implementation and/or evaluation of professional development programmes for LS facilitators

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available here: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijlls 
Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see here: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/ijlls 
Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to ““Please select the issue you are submitting to”. 
Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key Deadlines

Closing date for abstract submission: 31/05/2026 
Email for abstract submissions: [email protected] 
Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 31/07/2026 
Closing date for manuscripts submission: 30/11/2026 

Guest Editors

Dr James Calleja, Faculty of Education, University of Malta, Malta, [email protected]   
Dr John Paul Mynott, School of Education, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom, [email protected]  
Dr Daryl Michel, The Meadows Centre for Preventing Educational Risk, The University of Texas, USA, [email protected] 
Dr Vincent Andrew, Brunei Darussalam Leadership and Teacher Academy, Brunei Darussalam, [email protected] 

References

• Hasbrouck, J. & Michel, D. (2022). Student- Focused Coaching: The instructional coach’s guide to supporting student success through teacher collaboration. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
• Lewis, J. M. (2016). Learning to lead, leading to learn: How facilitators learn to lead lesson study. ZDM – Mathematics Education, 48 (4), 527–540.
• Mynott, J. P., & Michel, D. (2022). The invisible leader: Facilitation in lesson study. Educational Process: International Journal, 11(3), 48-61.