Inside the Mentors’ Experience: Using Poetic Representation to Examine the Tensions of Mentoring Pre-Service Teachers.

Abstract

The supervision and mentoring of pre-service teachers during professional experience is complex work that requires a range of skills and capacities. Professional development for this work has traditionally been limited, however, and mentor teachers report experiencing tensions in their work stemming from their roles as both supporter and assessor of pre-service teachers. Despite the central role that mentors play in professional experience, their voices are underrepresented in the literature. In this paper, I draw on interview data to examine teachers' experiences as mentors and the tensions they experience. I use poetic representation to illuminate the tensions and emotions of mentoring and present seven poems that provide insight into these tensions. I argue that poetic representation of interview data provides an opportunity to connect with the experience of being a mentor and offer suggestions for teacher educators to work collaboratively with mentor teachers to explore the dimensions of their role.

Wellbeing in initial teacher education: using poetic representation to examine pre-service teachers’ understanding of their self-care needs

“…Through poetry we can communicate concisely and with intensity to ignite a response from the audience; the poems are representative of both the process and outcome. This approach draws “on poetic representation as a means of displaying and disseminating research data” and provides scope to honour voices “to be heard in ways that move beyond cognitive, intellectual modes” (McDonough, 2018 , p. 113).…”

“…Poetic representation of the pre-service teacher voice is often not engaged with. As I transform individual pre-service teachers’ reflections into poems that represent a collective voice, poetry becomes a creative form of expression and representation allowing me to ignite reaction in the readers’ minds and hearts (McDonough, 2018 ). Like any form of qualitative data analysis, however, the process of constructing poetic representations involves “sifting through data” to identify words, phrases and extracts that “synthesise meaning” (Prendergast, 2009 , p. xxiii).…”

“…Words were not changed, but they were rearranged to construct sentences or poetic effect. As Sharon McDonough ( 2018 ) notes “these choices, are not only choices of writing, but ethical choices about how and why to represent the data in this way… [and] I attempted to convey the emotional nature” (p. 103) of the interweaving experiences of pre-service teachers while also remaining true to their reflections about self-care and wellbeing.…”

“…The teacher mentor is revealed as the critical influencer of this being a successful intention, with a direct correlation to a pre-service teachers’ perceived state of wellbeing and self-care while engaging in professional experience placements. Illuminated also is the tension of mentor teachers being both supported and judged as they support in the preparation of these future teachers for the profession (McDonough, 2018 ).…”

Illuminating five possible dimensions of self-care during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Working with data and presenting it through poetry can be a risk (Lemon, 2021). However, working this way ignites a response from the reader -it creates a dialogue, broadens understanding, presents a different perspective, and invites one to reflect and be present with moments of celebrations, suffering, worries, and learning (Görlich, 2016;Lemon, 2021;Lemon & McDonough, 2021;McDonough, 2018). Like any form of qualitative data analysis, however, the process of constructing poetic representations involves "sifting through data" to identify words, phrases and extracts that "synthesize meaning" (Prendergast, 2009, p. xxiii).…”