I have felt like a student ... because [Mary] is teaching me so many things and so sometimes we're in that role. But it's not me sitting on the other side of the desk. It's kind of like sitting beside her being a student. And, I have felt like we're colleagues when we share, particularly when we work with literature. ... We were able to feed off each other. It wasn't me so much learning, I mean I was learning, we were learning from each other. A student teacher in the Effective Mentoring in English Education (EMEE) project, Jessica (pseudonyms used), described the various relations she negotiated with her cooperating teacher, Mary. In this interview, she portrayed herself as both student and colleague. Later in the same conversation, Jessica described Mary as a friend who invited Jessica to dinner when her husband was out of town. Jessica's portrayal provides a glimpse into the importance she attached to her relationship with her mentor teacher, one in which she could find guidance, mutual learning, and friendship. This supportive, friendly relationship has not frequently appeared in the professional literature on preservice education. Most recent studies have focused on the student teachers' perceptions of their preservice experiences or the power cooperating teachers exert over their less experienced colleagues (Britzman, 1991; Vinz, 1996). In these studies, mentor teachers have often been viewed as impeding student teachers' professional growth rather than as promoting it. Considering the importance student teachers place on their practice teaching and the crucial role that mentor teachers play in this experience, the few portraits of effective mentors highlight the need for detailed examinations of effective mentoring in preservice teacher education. To this end, the EMEE project explored how effective mentors, such as Mary, supported student teachers during their practice teaching. We organized this project as a clinical partnership (Wagner, 1997). In these partnerships, teachers participate in reflexive, systematic inquiry sustained by the opportunity to engage in extended conversations about teaching practice (Wagner, 1997, p. 13). In the EMEE project, the cooperating teachers and student teachers served as both coresearchers and informants, exploring with us the significance of their evolving relationships for the education of new teachers. This research process was exploratory, emergent, and dialogic in character (Allen, Cary, & Delgado, 1995; Clark et al., 1996; Dyson, 1995). It emphasized the voices of teachers and student teachers in understanding experiences while it engaged them in expanding the boundaries of their own knowledge about teaching and professional growth. This approach and the topic of inquiry are significantly connected to contemporary thought on teacher development (Clifford & Green, 1996; Elliott, 1995; Hawkey, 1997; McNamara, 1995). Previous studies have suggested that mentors act as instructional models, sources of advice, and sounding boards for concerns about teaching; they challenge student teachers to think more broadly about their practice; and they guide the student teachers' professional development (Daloz, 1986; Elliott & Calderhead, 1993). Moreover, research suggests that mentoring relationships evolve over time in predictable ways, although student teachers' growth may be spurred by unanticipated but significant events (Fairbanks & Meritt, 1998; Maynard & Furlong, 1993; McIntyre & Hagger, 1993; Vinz, 1996). Current research suggests that mentoring relationships shape new teachers' professional practice in important ways (Hawkey, 1997). McNamara (1995) argues that the quality of mentoring influences student teachers' capacity to reflect on teaching strategies and to incorporate them into their own practice. In sum, these studies suggest that mentoring consists of complex social interactions that mentor teachers and student teachers construct and negotiate for a variety of professional purposes and in response to the contextual factors they encounter. …

The Role of Effective Mentors in Learning to Teach

In an attempt to build a more comprehensive and holistic understanding of the complexity, dynamics and idiosyncrasies involved in becoming a teacher, this study focussed on the experiences of 295 student teachers. Their feelings, cognitions and perceptions regarding teaching practice were analysed using the short version of the Inventory of Experiences and Perceptions of the Teaching Practice. Results emphasise some of the difficulties experienced during this period (e.g., stress, sense of weariness and ‘vulnerability’), as well the positive perceptions of these student teachers regarding their growing knowledge and skilfulness, as well as their sense of efficacy, flexibility and spontaneity in their performance and interactions. Their perception of their accomplishments in achieving reasonable levels of acceptance and recognition within the school community and their positive evaluation of the guidance and support provided by their supervisors are also emphasised. Differences were found – in terms of gen...

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Becoming a teacher: student teachers’ experiences and perceptions about teaching practice

Mentoring has been the focus of much attention in the recent literature on initial teacher education and induction and as such has become a 'foundation stone' of collaborative endeavours between universities and schools in the facilitation of teacher development. In 1998 some 220 beginning teachers and 245 supervisors and mentors in New South Wales government schools were surveyed and beginning teachers' professional learning observed closely in six case study schools in different settings across the state. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated the relevance of internship to initial teacher education programs and established the importance of mentoring support in beginning teachers' professional learning in the induction year. The case studies also identified key practices, conditions and professional interactions that sustained transmission, transactional and transformational approaches to teacher learning. The complementary qualitative and quantita...

Mentoring and Beginning Teachers' Workplace Learning

The purpose of this study was to shed light on mentor teachers’ perceptions of their roles and responsibilities and to contrast their understandings with a normative view of mentoring (Goldsberry, 1998; Hawkey, 1997) We hypothesized that the mentor teachers’ perceptions would likely differ from established conceptions of this construct, a difference that has significant implications for mentor preparation and university collaboration Participants, 264 teachers who were serving as mentors to pre‐service teachers, were asked open‐ended questions designed to allow the mentors to describe the ways in which they envisioned their role Follow‐up telephone interviews were conducted with 34 randomly selected mentor teachers to further determine the relative value they placed on different aspects of mentoring The results of this research confirm that mentoring is a complex construct and that the perceptions held by mentors may be influenced by the kinds and quality of mentoring experiences they have had Implic

More than a place to teach: exploring the perceptions of the roles and responsibilities of mentor teachers

“Jumping in”: trust and communication in mentoring student teachers

Introduction 
This chapter is 'concerned with how growth in teaching can be fostered in student teachers through mentoring. It begins with an analysis of the growth process by drawing upon recent research on student 
teachers' learning. It then compares and contrasts this with the conceptions of mentoring and student teachers' learning held by a sample 
of mentors involved in an articled teacher training scheme. This comparison of the two is used to raise issues concerning the roles and 
responsibilities of mentors, their potential contribution to student 
teachers' professional development and obstacles that may have to be 
overcome to reach this potential.

James Calderhead

Papers

Mentoring for Teacher Development: Possibilities and Caveats