Samenvatting

Both coaches and their beginning teachers (coachees) play an essential role in shaping an autonomy-supportive context. However, little research has studied how coachees’ autonomy need is co-regulated within coach-coachee dyads in educational settings. Integrating insights from interpersonal and dynamic systems perspectives, we explore recurrent patterns of autonomy co-regulation, distinguishing between functional (autonomy-supportive and initiative-driven) and dysfunctional (autonomy-thwarting and dismissive) co-regulation. We coded 15 audio-recorded coaching sessions involving five dyads across three sessions, resulting in 478 data points for in-depth exploration of behavioural change processes. State Space Grid (SSG) analyses revealed a predominant functional co-regulation pattern, where coaches’ autonomy-supportive behaviours aligned with coachees’ proactive autonomy expression. Dysfunctional co-regulation emerged when coaches provided evaluative and directive feedback, which often met with coachees’ resistance or disengagement. We also identified meaningful temporal evolvement in autonomy co-regulation across coaching sessions in response to changing goals. Collectively, these findings highlight autonomy co-regulation as a dynamic process continuously evolving throughout the coaching relationship. These insights underscore the need for adaptive and personalised strategies to cultivate and sustain functional autonomy co-regulation in teacher development.