What Mentors’ Practices Reveal about How They Understand the Work of Mentoring

• In Event: Preparing for Equity and Justice: A Multi-Perspectival Exploration of One Urban Teacher Preparation Program

Abstract

Purpose
Though mentors play a critical role preparing novice teachers, they often receive little preparation or training (Clarke et al., 2014). Lack of attention to mentoring practices leaves pre-service teacher’s (PSTs) learning opportunities to enact student-centered and equity oriented teaching practices in the field open to chance. This study explores how mentor teachers (MTs) working with PSTs in an urban teacher education program understand the work of mentoring and how these perspectives do or do not give space for PSTs to enact the justice oriented commitments of the program.

Perspectives
Findings from studies summarizing mentoring approaches can be viewed across two continua: the mode and focus of mentoring, visualized in Figure 1. The ‘mode of mentoring’ (x-axis), ranges from prescriptive, where MTs take a directive and evaluative stance (Clarke et al., 2014), to collaborative, where mentors and PSTs share responsibility and ownership of decision-making and teaching practices (Tobin, 2006). The focus of mentoring (y-axis) refers to aspects of teaching attended to during mentoring conversations, which ranges from visible behaviors of teaching (Hoffman et al., 2015) to more invisible deliberations of teaching.

Methods and Data
We created vignettes of mentoring strategies exemplifying different mentoring modes and foci from the framework in Figure 1. During semi-structured interviews (n=5), mentors assessed these vignettes and their likelihood of implementing those strategies with their PSTs. Analysis resulted in the creation of analytical tables situating themes from the mentors’ conceptions of practices in relation to our framework. These findings were triangulated with survey results from 24 program mentors.

Findings
Findings suggest a range of approaches to the work of mentoring; however, we note three overarching categories of mentoring practice that emerged in our analysis. Prescriptive Experts preferred more didactic practices, attributing this decision to a concern that more collaborative approaches with inexperienced PSTs could negatively impact instruction and thus students’ learning. Conscientious Collaborators represent the predominant approach to the work of mentoring among participants. These mentors opted towards approaches that combined prescriptive and collaborative practices, noting that certain instances required more expertise and others were better suited for collaborative deliberation with PSTs. Collaborative Guides emphasized providing PSTs with opportunities to learn by doing and opted toward practices that engaged PSTs in reflective questioning and joint decision-making. Across all categories, mentors described their practices in relation to their dual responsibilities as a teacher of K-12 students and a mentor of PSTs. Mentors that strongly emphasized their accountability as a K-12 teacher gravitated towards the Prescriptive Expert stance.

Significance
Mentors’ reliance on prescriptive mentoring practices which inhibit PSTs voices, do not appear to be deeply held beliefs about PST learning, but rather adaptations to the constraints of their school environments. These prescriptive practices are in conflict with collaborative mentoring that gives space for PSTs to bring their ideas and commitments to justice to life in the classroom. Providing mentors with designated time in the school day for mentor-novice dialogue as well as increased support through professional learning could help foster collaborative stances in mentors’ work with PSTs.

Authors

• Janine Remillard, University of Pennsylvania

• Tess Bernhard, University of Pennsylvania

• Lara Condon, University of Memphis

• Riku Sayuj, University of Pennsylvania