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Is Mentoring the Right Word? A Case Study Into Praxis in the Field

Sat, April 18, 2:45 to 4:15pm, Hyatt, Floor: East Tower - Purple Level, Riverside West

Abstract

Objectives: An investigation into how mentoring is understood by researchers, teachers and school leaders.
Theoretical framework: Sensemaking
Methods: Case Study considering the conflation of mentoring with coaching, supervision, counselling and induction, employing the theoretical framework of Weick (1995) by mapping and triangulating multiple data sources
Data sources: School leaders’ mentoring aims; field notes; interviews (28 mentors & 30 mentees); review of 116 articles from 2005-2014.
Results: School leaders and the literature position mentoring in pragmatic, instrumentalist terms. Teacher mentees’ perceived it as performance management. The literature conflated coaching, mentoring, counseling, supervision and induction.
Scholarly significance: Positioning mentoring as pragmatic limits its potential. A strong theoretical foundation, conceptually separating mentoring praxis from coaching, supervision and induction is needed.

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