Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
2002
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
EdD
College
College of Education and Human Services
Department
Curriculum & Instruction/Literacy Studies
Committee Chair
Linda Spatig.
Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how induction-year mentors in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia perceived their jobs as mentors, reflected upon their training, and assessed their administrative support. By asking mentors to reflect upon their experiences as trained mentors, administrators may use this information to determine the extent to which what is happening in the field is perceived as effective and valuable by the participants charged with success of the mentoring programs. Mentoring, in this study, was examined through the lens of critical theory to determine if what was experienced by mentors in their training programs perpetuated or challenged the status quo in terms of enhancing learning opportunities for all students. Nine experienced, female, elementary mentors, three from each state, were interviewed three times over the course of three months. Additionally, field notes from both training sessions and interviews and documents from each state's training program were used as data in the study. The results of this study support current literature that building principals are perceived by mentors as being able to enhance the success of mentoring programs by controlling factors such as released time for mentoring partners, careful selection of mentors, and assurance that mentors are in the same building as mentees. Other results of this study offer empirical evidence that training may influence mentors' self-perceptions and practice as mentors and as teachers, and that different training programs are perceived by mentors differently. Because training has the potential to influence mentoring practice, the focus and framework of the mentor-training program determines in large part how they see their roles as mentors and whether they begin to critically examine their own teaching. In this study, only the Ohio mentors who were trained using the Pathwise mentor-training program reported using what they had learned in their training to critically examine and change their own teaching practices in ways that enhanced opportunities for learning for all students. The implication of this study is that selected training programs will affect how mentoring is perceived and practiced by mentors.
Recommended Citation
Cowdery, Joy Rise, "Induction -year mentors' self -perceptions and reflections on their training and administrative support" (2002). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 2411.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/2411