Meeting the Challenges of Mentoring Across Cultures

• In Event: 32.065 - Considerations and Practices for Building Strong Mentoring Experiences

Abstract

Growing evidence indicates that trusting relationships between mentors and teachers is crucial for effective mentoring. In diverse communities, where the mentor’s culture is distinctly different from that of the teachers, it is more difficult to form a trusting relationship because of different cultural norms, values, and beliefs (Johnson-Baily & Cerveno, 2002). The challenges of this cross-cultural mentoring are a fertile ground for mutual growth.
This study focuses on the cultural considerations of mentoring teachers in diverse school settings. We examine the influence of differences in culture, religion and heritage on mentoring relationships. We examine the influence of differences in culture, religion and heritage on mentoring relationships within the context of a mentoring program in Orthodox Jewish day schools.

Authors

• Sara Efrat Efron, National-Louis University - Illinois

• Jeffrey S. Winter, National Louis University

• Sherri Bressman, National Louis University