Mentorship Supports for Teachers of Color

• In Event: 75.020 - Charting the Landscape of Ethnoracial Teacher Diversity: Examining Research Across the Continuum

Abstract

In recognizing that teaching candidates and practitioners move through a series of transitional stages as they acclimate themselves to the profession (professionalize) and continue to do so throughout their professional years (Feiman-Nemser, 2001; Kohli, 2016), we suggest that mentor leaders play a crucial role in teachers’ personal and professional development (Flores, Claeys, & Gist, 2018). In order to maximize the benefits of mentoring for pre- and in-service Teachers of Color (TOC), mentor leaders must be embedded early in a comprehensive teacher preparation program with a clear vision of preparing and supporting these teachers for the current realities of the classroom (Guha, Hyler, & Darling-Hammond, 2016).This mentorship is especially critical for TOC who face differential challenges based on the grade level they teach, their school context, and/or the number of years in the profession (Achinstein et al., 2010; Hasberry, 2013; Kohli, 2016).

In this paper, we explore the aforementioned gaps in a review of literature by drawing attention to the following questions:

* How do we transform the role of mentorship for pre- and in-service teachers to address the need of teacher candidates and practitioners of color within a broader socio- political, social cultural contexts, and often racially charged educational settings (e.g. urban, rural, and suburban?)
* How do TOC negotiate, resist, and disrupt oppressive structures in various teaching and learning contexts within the mentorship experience?
* How do we sustain mentoring efforts to support teachers’ efficaciousness in transporting and adapting their knowledge and skills for praxis in complex and highly diverse classrooms?
* How should university-based and/or school-based mentorship programs be structured to retain teachers and help them become teacher leaders and mentor leaders?
* What knowledge and skills do mentor leaders of teachers need to possess in order to support teachers working in schools with large underrepresented and underserved populations?
* In what ways does a mentor act as a leader to foster creativity and innovation, especially those which promote and facilitate culturally efficacious educational practices and interactions throughout the school?

Authors

• Belinda Bustos Flores, The University of Texas - San Antonio

• Socorro Herrera, Kansas State University

• Lorena Claeys, The University of Texas - San Antonio