Principal Transformative Learning Through Mentoring Aspiring Administrators

• In Event: Park Central Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Benefits and Challenges of Instructional Coaching and Mentoring for Teachers and School Leaders

Abstract

Few studies have explicitly examined the benefits to practicing principals engaged in mentoring aspiring principals. Through the lens of transformative learning, the purpose of this study was to examine the professional learning of practicing principals engaged as mentors with aspiring principals in a leadership preparation program. Two questions guided this study. First, how does engaging in the mentoring process lead to professional learning? Second, how does that learning manifest itself in principal practice? Findings indicated principal mentor/protégé and mentor/mentor interactions prompted mentors to question their own experiences and practices, problematizing some of these practices. Principals then generated solutions, which lead to changes in core beliefs and assumptions and finally changes in practices, reflective of transformative learning.

Authors

• Dana L. Bickmore, University of Nevada - Las Vegas

• Lydia Davenport, Alabama A&M University