Reflections from the room where it happens: examining mentoring in the moment
International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education
ISSN: 2046-6854
Article publication date: 4 April 2019
Issue publication date: 21 May 2019
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.
Keywords
Citation
Marciano, J.E., Farver, S.D., Guenther, A., Wexler, L.J., Jansen, K. and Stanulis, R.N. (2019), "Reflections from the room where it happens: examining mentoring in the moment", International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 134-148. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-08-2018-0047
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited