But I Thought I Was Helping You? Challenges in Mentoring New Teachers in Urban Contexts

• In Event: Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: Mentoring Beginning Teachers

Abstract

This multiple case study explores the challenges associated with differing expectations of novice teachers and their mentors in three urban schools. Researchers employed social theories of learning and notions of teacher capacity to analyze data from three mentor-mentee teams about the struggles of helping beginning teachers gain skills and confidence to negotiate the demands, constraints, and cultural contexts of urban schools. Findings suggest that mentors held different goals than novice teachers for mentorship and sought to foster greater independence and self-reliance, which they viewed as necessary for successful urban teaching.

Authors

• Carol J. Gilles, University of Missouri

• Antonio J. Castro, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Erica Beth Thieman, University of Missouri