Career-Long Mentoring for Middle School Teachers: A Literature Review

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 11:40 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Middle Level Research on Teacher Development (Table 4)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore mentoring as a career-long professional learning approach for supporting and retaining middle school teachers. To guide our study, we developed a research question: What is known about using a career-long mentoring approach to support and retain middle school teachers? We used adult learning theory as a theoretical framework . We selected literature review as our research method using a semi-systematic review approach. Articles identified from our review were our data sources. We organized the results of our literature review by relevant topics (a) mentoring with subtopics of preservice, early career, mid and later career teacher mentoring, and (b) teacher retention and mentoring. We included research findings related specifically to middle school teachers.

Authors

• Micki M. Caskey, Portland State University

• Karen Weller Swanson, Academy District 20