Benefits of Informal Mentoring for Student-Teacher Identity Development

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable Session 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Identity Development, Socialization, and Retention (Table 27)

Abstract

This case study aimed to examine how an online informal mentoring relationship among student teachers and mentor teachers has functioned to support student teachers’ identity development. The data were collected via video recordings that captured how 22 student teachers and five mentor teachers working in groups co-designed lesson plans. Also, five mentor teachers and 11 student teachers were interviewed. All data were analyzed through MAXQDA (2020) software. The data analysis indicated that mentor teachers made use of several principles that has the potential to inform student teachers’ professional identity development such as building and maintaining a strong relationship, offering support and encouragement, providing ongoing feedback, making time for reflective activities, creating a positive environment, enabling awareness, self-identifications, and future projections.

Authors

• Dilek Fazlıoğlu, Baskent University

• Nur Cakir, Middle East Technical University