Using the Mentorship Capacity Framework: A Catalyst for Truth in K–8 STEM Teacher Mentoring Relation

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Abstract

Purpose
The shortage of teachers in US schools, partially created by the great resignation, has caused district administrators to search for talented teachers overseas. The influx of overseas talents brings with it a huge gap in cultural understanding and practices in specialist subjects like STEM. This study examined how one mentor utilized the mentoring capability framework (MCF) to influence the growth and development of four Jamaica trained exchange Computer Science/Information Technology teachers, during their first year of teaching STEM at the K-8 in the USA. The purpose of the study was to understand the true experience of each teacher, at different stages of development and describe their struggles and challenges.
Perspective
The study was guided by the MCF, which utilizes literature on teacher induction. This framework purports that there are four key elements that are present in successful teacher induction: professional practice, identity, orientation, and wellbeing (Bastian & Marks, 2017; AITSL, 2016; Darling-Hammond, et. al 2009). Utilizing this framework enabled the mentor to understand her role, identify priorities, and to co-develop norms for mentoring the culturally new teachers. She used the six embedded domains in the framework: (1) teaching and learning; (2) professional identity; (3) communication and interpersonal skills; (4) collaborative partnerships; (5) professional generosity and empathy; and (6) professional culture and context, to develop questions used during the three-part mentee’s interviews over the year.
Methods
The study utilized grounded theory, a qualitative research method that calls on the researcher to simultaneously collect and analyze data. This approach to research was chosen because it enabled theory generation, exploration, and discovery of a refreshing perspective on mentoring international teachers, that are based on truthful lived experiences (Strauss & Corbin, 1990; Charmaz, 2011). Data collection in this study included, collection and review of classroom artifacts, observation of teaching, conducting informal and formal discussions and engaging in a semi-structured three-part interview with each teacher.
Findings and Significance
The findings of the study shared the lived experiences of four international teachers, and their mentor in the first year as a teacher of STEM in a charter school district. Common to all stories were narratives of unfamiliar classroom norms, power and identity struggles, communication, and interpersonal issues, as well as cultural differences that made the process appear unmanageable at first. The mentor’s narration described significant incidents that served a catalyst for growth in the first three months of the mentoring process. The most significant finding was the mentor’s use of collaborative partnerships as a bridge to success. The stories describe the truths about teaching in a new culture and the kinds of professional generosity and empathy that are necessary, if foreign teachers are to survive the cracks that lie between school climate and culture in the US school contexts. These findings contribute to what is known about the mentoring capacity framework, and its use in uncovering the true experiences of international teachers who teach STEM in the USA K-8 context.

Author

• Paula Morris
  Presenting Author