Where, When, and How Does Mentoring Take Place? Mentors' Perspectives on the Practice of Mentoring

• In Event: Inside the Mentor Teacher's World: Broadening Our Understanding of Mentor Roles, Activities, and Professional Growth

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
Existing literature on the practice of mentor teachers focuses almost exclusively on activities outside of instructional time (e.g. co-planning, debriefs) (Hoffman et al., 2015). Notable exceptions include Schwille’s (2008) attention to the practice of “stepping in.” Do mentor teachers also conceptualize the practice of mentoring as an activity that occurs outside of instruction? Our study explores where, when, and how mentoring takes place, according to mentor teachers themselves.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Our investigation into the practice of mentoring is guided by sociocultural theory (Rogoff, Paradise, Arauz, Correa-Chavez, & Angelillo, 2003). This literature suggests that carefully designed opportunities to practice (Ericcson, 2002), in-the-moment feedback (Schön, 1987), and explicit models and representations (Grossman et al., 2009) play important roles in learning to enact complex professional practices. Given the importance of guided practice in professional learning, it is interesting that mentoring literature focuses almost exclusively on activity outside of the central activity of teaching: interacting with K-12 students.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
Our qualitative study examines two research questions:
1. How do mentor teachers conceptualize mentoring?
2. What do mentor teachers understand as opportunities and constraints associated with their current mentoring practices?

Data sources
Participants include 27 mentor teachers across four institutions. The sample includes 2 early childhood, 6 elementary, 10 middle, and 9 high school teachers across science, English, social studies, and mathematics; averaging 8 years of teaching experience. Participants self-identified as 22 White, 2 African American, 1 Asian, 1 Native American/Alaskan, 1 Multi-Racial; 20 female, 6 male, 1 undisclosed; and representative of the populations of mentor teachers in our programs. Participants completed a survey followed by an interview including a set of researcher-created vignettes. Vignettes featured mentoring strategies such as co-planning or observing and providing feedback as well as in-the-moment strategies, such as modeling and stepping-in. We asked mentors whether each vignette was something they do, could imagine doing, or something they would not do, and explored reasons behind each decision.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions
Initial findings indicate variability in how mentor teachers conceptualize their role: from modeling to coaching to co-teaching; several referred to a gradual release of responsibility model. Perhaps not surprisingly, the majority of mentors reported that they do not engage in mentoring practices that occur during instructional time. While providing a variety of reasons for why they do not engage in in-the-moment mentoring, almost all noted a desire not to undercut novices’ authority in the eyes of students, and focused upon ensuring novices’ comfort in their role as new teachers. Transcript analysis revealed that mentor teachers rarely discussed conceptions of student-teacher learning; this finding was particularly surprising.

Significance of the study
While novices consider the guidance of mentor teachers as one of the most important features of their preparation (Duffield, 2006), very little is known about the practices of mentor teachers. This study illustrates the range of practices that mentors typically engage in, and provides insights into why mentors may or may not pick up more interactive practices.

Authors

• Sharon Feiman-Nemser, Brandeis University

• Karen M. Hammerness, American Museum of Natural History

• Kavita Kapadia Matsko, Northwestern University

• Jamie Wallace, American Museum of Natural History