Remember, You're Doing Great: Preservice Teacher Mentorship in Shifting Contexts

• In Event: (Un)Learning Processes and Practices of Teacher Education: Lessons From the Global Pandemic

Abstract

In this collaborative self-study, three preservice teachers (PTs) and their mentor teacher (MT) seek to better understand the nature of the mentorship and collaboration during their respective clinical field experiences. The placements took place against the backdrop of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and as a result included slightly different contexts: fully virtual, partially virtual/hybrid, fully in-person. The authors adopted Kalbfliesch’s (2002) Mentoring Enactment Theory as a model for understanding their collaborations, focusing on communication as a vehicle for developing and sustaining mentorship relationships.
Through thematic analysis of digital artifacts, reflective narratives, and subsequent analysis and discussion, authors identified shifts in the traditional mentor/mentee relationship that offer potential guidance for teacher educators and mentor teachers in designing field placements.

Authors

• Mary Rose O'Shea, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Brian Bennett, Chicago Public Schools

• Kristina Blagojev, Proviso Township High School D209

• Elizabeth Malloy