Where Are the Good Mentors and Who’s Mentoring Whom?
Nora, a first-year teacher, shared with us her experience with the mentor that an administrator had assigned to her: “My mentor did not want to be a mentor. She hates me; I hate her. I wanted to be with another teacher with whom I have more in common, and a good teacher” (McCann, Johannessen, and Ricca 43). In many ways, the school had done the right thing in designing a mentor program by matching experienced teachers with new teachers, by providing training for the mentors, and by specifying a two-year sequence for the relationship between MBT Shoes On Sale the experienced teacher and the new col?league. But the relationship was not working, and Nora expressed resentment in knowing that there were other teachers that she admired and would have preferred as a mentor.
If a team is designing a mentor program in a school, the team can specify criteria for qualifying as a mentor. The criteria would probably include some basics, such as being tenured, teaching the same subject as the protege teaches, and having a strong reputation as a teacher. In addition, one might look for certain dispositions: helpful, collaborative, discreet, ethical, student-centered, empathic, etc. Perhaps Nora’s assigned mentor had all of these qualities; still, the relationship did not meet Nora’s needs.
We can think of another beginning teacher named Winnie, who had been assigned a kind-hearted, experienced teacher named Sonia as her mentor. Sonia seemed to act intuitively as a supportive mentor. Before the opening of the school year, Sonia contacted Winnie to introduce herself and to invite her to lunch to get acquainted. On the first day of school, Winnie arrived at her classroom to find on her desk a pot of flowers, a welcoming gift from Sonia. As the school year progressed, the pace of work hastened and stress increased. The meetings between Winnie and Sonia became rare. When they did meet, Sonia began their conversations by inquiring about Winnie’s experience at school. After Winnie reported that she was doing well, the conversation typically turned to Sonia’s sharing the many issues that troubled her life: loneliness, health problems, a lost cat, conflicts with her mother, etc. Typically, sessions ended with Sonia weeping and Winnie offering encouragement. Winnie shared MBT Shoes with us that “After awhile, I was wondering who was mentoring whom?”
We can’t fault the leaders in the school for recruiting Sonia as a mentor. She was kind, student-centered, empathic, experienced, accomplished, knowledgeable, and conveniently located. She met many of the criteria that define a good mentor. We are unsure about the kind of training Sonia might have received to prepare for her mentoring assignment. Perhaps she could have benefited from practice at listening and coaching. But the training opportunity had passed and Winnie was apparently stuck in a situation where she had become the mentor rather than the protege.
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