District -University Partnerships for Mentor Support within a Large Urban District

• In Event: Collaborative Approaches to Mentoring and Induction for Early-Career Teachers

Abstract

As an extension of a long-standing collaboration, a district professional learning team and a university research group identified a district need--how to provide learning and support opportunities for mentors of preservice and early career teachers throughout the school year. This paper documents the process of the partnership focusing on this problem of practice. We detail how we co-designed, implemented and reflected on a “listening session” at a yearly mentoring conference. This session provided the opportunity to learn from over 100 current teacher mentors about what they need to be effective mentors. Our research questions are: How does a partnership continually revise understandings regarding teacher mentor needs and plan for mentor support, drawing on each institutions’ strengths? And, what are the possibilities and challenges of such a collaboration for supporting mentors of preservice and early career teachers?

In this collaborative self-study (Dinkelman, 2003), we draw from data sources such as field notes and meetings recordings documenting how we designed this session, learned from participants, and then planned professional learning opportunities for mentors in the large urban district. Using principles of design-based research (Reinking & Bradley, 2008), we approached our work as an iterative process, first engaging in listening and theorizing around shared issues at the mentor conference, then designing and developing professional learning resources and tools for mentors that utilized existing resources to respond to teacher mentors. As we worked together to implement solutions, our district and university team regularly came back together to analyze and reflect on what was learned.

Findings of this study include the unique opportunity that this partnership created for teacher mentor voices to be heard in terms of the problems of practice they encounter in their work. By listening to the mentors and other mentor collaborators and supporters (such as university faculty and district leadership) share what was important to them, we were able to create priorities for mentor support that were responsive to users. Additionally, the development process of the listening session highlighted the need for a more robust and collaborative partnership between the district and university partners and created a sense of urgency for this work. The current iterations of this partnership demonstrate the need for all partners to be committed to continual meetings in which all perspectives are positioned as valuable and equal, openness to continual change, continuous interrogation of existing structures and roles, and creativity in developing imaginative possibilities that center mentor needs. Several challenges arose when working to serve the goals and needs of all partners equitably including sustainability issues due to funding constraints, mismatched institutional norms and systems, and competing responsibilities of partners leading to time and scheduling constraints that can limit sustainability. The study findings suggested the possibilities for extending this work in hopeful ways that counteract the forces that have led to teacher burn-out and teachers’ resistance to taking on additional roles in teacher leadership. The implications of this study extend beyond teacher mentor support and provide a framework for university-district partnerships to support problems of practice more generally.

Authors

• Melissa Mosley Wetzel, University of Texas at Austin

• Katherina A. Payne, University of Texas at Austin

• Emily McDonald, University of Texas at Austin

• Meagan Pike Dean, University of Texas at Austin

• Katie Trautman, University of Texas at Austin

• Angie House, University of Texas at Austin