Reflections from the room where it happens: examining mentoring in the moment

Abstract

Purpose -Mentor teachers are tasked with supporting the professional development of student teachers. Yet, little is known about the mentoring practices they enact in the moment during classroom instruction. The purpose of this paper is to examine mentoring that happens in the moment, extending Schwille's (2008) notion of mentoring "inside the action" of teaching (p. 156), and conceptualize mentoring in the moment as educative mentoring. Design/methodology/approach -This paper shares findings of a qualitative case study, foregrounding the perspectives of a mentor teacher and a student teacher who audio-recorded conversations about what they considered to be instances of mentoring in the moment that took place earlier that day. Conversations were transcribed and analyzed through a process of iterative coding. Findings -Mentoring in the moment occurred when the mentor teacher and student teacher made decisions about whether and how to adjust course during lessons to better support student learning; and highlighted strengths and recognized weaknesses across multiple and distinct moments. In addition to demonstrating in action examples of modeling, transparent decision-making and taking the stance of a learner, participants exhibited unique characteristics that enable educative learning to occur. Specifically, they demonstrated: flexibility; humility; and a desire to learn and improve. Originality/value -The findings build upon the existing research about educative mentoring, mentoring inside the action and mentor teacher characteristics, contributing to a more robust definition of mentoring in the moment.

A Change in Interpersonal Relational Capital: Through mentoring relationships and homework activities in a university setting

“…This study highlights the relational room, the in-between (Biesta, 2014), the face-to-face interaction, which creates a deeper understanding of the relationship between student and mentor (Marciano et al, 2019). The findings reveal two dimensions, highlighting both the present and the future.…”

“…The analysis in this study shows how even a minimum effort in the form of homework support and extracurricular activities can alleviate the problem. Overall, the study highlights the relevance of mentoring (Marciano et al, 2019) and homework involvement in academic achievement among immigrant students.…”

“…When the students came to the university for the first time, they appreciated that some teachers from the school joined the activity. By exploring the relational scenarios of what happens when the volunteers and students meet face-to-face, (Ljungblad, 2016(Ljungblad, , 2019Marciano et al, 2019), a deeper interpersonal understanding of mentorstudent relationships was achieved. The results highlight different kinds of relational conditions and relational values (Gergen, 2009).…”

Toward New Visions of Teacher Education: Addressing the Challenges of Program Coherence

“…The paper by Cavanna and colleagues (2021) illustrates one example of such as disconnect and resonates with previous work by other scholars, including those cited above. while working with students in the classroom are limited (Marciano et al, 2019). So how may teacher educators and MTs learn from and with one another as they work toward the shared goal of preparing TCs?…”

Preservice Teachers Taking Action: Enacting Teaching Practices and Pedagogical Theories in an After-School Literacy Club Field Experience

“…While observational field experiences provide valuable insight for preservice teachers as they observe a mentor teacher in action with students (Marciano et al, 2019), we sought to provide new opportunities for preservice teachers we work with in a secondary English education program at a university in the U.S. Midwest to play a more active role in the “creation process and facilitating process” of teaching and learning, as Nathan noted, while meeting field experience requirements of the Teacher Preparation Program. In addition, these tutoring experiences and observational field placements did not always afford preservice teachers opportunities to enact the kinds of teaching stances they learned about in their teacher preparation coursework; thus, we wanted to create a field experience that provided more opportunity for preservice teachers to plan for and enact teaching practices related to the pedagogical theories valued in our program.…”