Mentoring as Professional Practice: Studies of Mentoring in Teacher Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

School-based mentors for student teachers are supposed to contribute to quality teaching for future learners. Several researchers have argued that since mentoring is different from teaching, mentors need to construct a professional identity and develop a set of skills that go beyond the teacher role. The aim of this symposium is to shed light on how to facilitate mentoring as a professional practice by highlighting drivers of mentors’ perceived identity as teacher educators, student teachers’ perceptions of quality in mentoring, and how conversations between mentors and student teachers differ from those between student peers. We also problematize how different terms are used to denote developmental relationships in schools.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Mentorship and Mentoring Practices

Chair

• Megan Tschannen-Moran, College of William and Mary

Papers

• Mentor Integration in Teacher Education - Lise Vikan Sandvik, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology; Trond Solhaug, Norwegian University of Sceince and Technology; Eyvind Elstad, University of Oslo; Knut-Andreas Christophersen

• Supervising Conversations in the Practicum Setting: A Comparison Between Peer Dialogues and Mentoring Dialogues - Juan-José Mena Marcos, Universidad de Salamanca

• Student Teachers' Self-Efficacy and Perceptions of Mentoring in Teacher Education - Eli Lejonberg, University of Oslo

• Conceptual and Contextual Confusion? Making Sense of the Concept of "Mentoring" and the Accurate "Context" - Göran Fransson, University of Gävle

Discussant

• Megan Tschannen-Moran, College of William and Mary