Mentorship in Context: Exploring the Experiences of Mentee and Mentor Teachers

• In Event: Meaningful Mentoring Practices: Preservice Teachers and Mentors

Abstract

Mentoring programs, if and when they are implemented correctly, are invaluable to the development of effective teacher practice and to teacher retention. Therefore, the purpose of this case study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a structured mentoring program within a network of charter schools in the urban southwest through the perceptions of novice and veteran teachers during the yearlong program. The study uses the perspective of Gordon and Lowery’s (2016) “mentoring web” as this concept also emerged from specifically from the perceptions of one of the participating novice teachers. Additionally, the theme of relational connections was a key way in which participants articulated both the benefits and the constraints mentoring program studied in this case.

Authors

• Chyllis Elayne Scott, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Steve Hayden, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Tara J Plachowski, University of Nevada - Las Vegas