This research contributes to current understandings of how the process of learning unfurls temporally during coaching conversations. This experience has been obtained through first-hand lived experience, in particular, my active participation as a coachee in a series of one-to-one coaching conversations with two professional coaches. To assist in developing and enriching these understandings further I have crafted a research design with a two-stage process. And a hybrid methodology drawn from Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and Dialogical Methods. This approach is beneficial in enabling the complexity of self-other relationships that unfold within coaching conversations to be fully articulated. I have chosen to adopt autoethnography as a research method in stage one of this research, and interviews in stage two, respectively. Autoethnography enables a complex exploration of first-hand lived experience, providing a forum in which reflexive dialogues between self and other can emerge. Thus, allowing multiple perspectives to be heard. In stage two I have interviewed 6 professional coaches, facilitating an additional dialogue to unfold between self and others, enriching this research. Critically, within this research, the self is described as malleable and non-identical with itself, where on encountering others in external and inner dialogues it experiences challenges and struggles with the unknown and unfamiliar. Significantly, through this experience the self is transformed. Finally, this process can be understood as artistic, since this research describes an aesthetic metaphor informed by Bakhtin and Gell, in which coach and coachee - described as the recipient are actively engaged in emotionally crafting and shaping the other.

The beliefs that teachers have about teaching and learning have an influence on the practices that teachers implement. This is particularly relevant, although not exclusively, to teaching practices that meet the needs of Māori students in our bicultural learning environments of New Zealand. There is a growing amount of research to support the use of student voice data, the benefits of which can be seen at a school level, at the classroom teacher level as well as for the individual students themselves. This research project focused on exploring the impact of students sharing their thoughts and opinions about their learning, (i.e.: student voice data) on influencing teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning. In doing so it explores effective facilitation of this process in a bicultural learning environment. In particular it investigates the potential of a combination of specific tools, notably student focus groups and coaching conversations with teachers to influence teachers’ beliefs. This study took place in two low decile schools in Christchurch. It involved focus groups of Māori and non-Māori primary-aged students, alongside teacher reflective interviews being conducted on repeated visits. Its findings identified approaches for accessing authentic student voice in a bicultural learning environment. The thoughts and opinions shared by Māori students highlighted a focus on their own learning as well as celebrating their culture. Teachers reacted to student voice by making connections to their classroom programmes, and by accepting or dismissing more provocative statements. These reactions by teachers helped emphasize the most helpful methods for reflecting on this data. Their reflections, used alongside a specially designed ‘Teacher Belief Gathering Tool’, ascertained that teachers’ beliefs were both reaffirmed and changed through guided reflection and coaching conversations on student voice data. Teachers’ knowledge of effective teaching and learning, their motivation for changing their teaching practices, as well as witnessing success were all considerable factors in teachers changing their beliefs.