Developmental Relationships in Schools: How Mentor Priorities Matter to Student Teachers

• In Event: Meaningful Mentoring Practices: Preservice Teachers and Mentors

Abstract

Since Kram wrote about mentoring as a developmental relationship in 1988, the term developmental mentoring has been widely used and further developed by several researchers. In this study, 382 preservice teachers answered questions about the mentoring dyad and mentor priorities. Using structural equational modeling (SEM), we investigate mentee perceptions of the mentor–mentee relationship as the dependent variable. The findings indicate that mentee perceptions of mentor efforts and perceived priority in the shared exploration of the teaching practice is positively related to mentee perceptions of the mentoring relationship as a developmental process. Mentor emphasis on theory as a foundation for mentoring discussions, however, is weakly negatively related to mentee perceptions of the relationship as a developmental process.

Authors

• Eli Lejonberg, University of Oslo

• Eyvind Elstad, University of Oslo

• Lise Vikan Sandvik, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology

• Trond Solhaug, Norwegian University of Sceince and Technology

• Knut-Andreas Christophersen