Roni Jo Draper

Making Sense of a Failed Triad: Mentors, University Supervisors, and Positioning Theory

Mentoring is often portrayed as an unqualified good. Teacher educators claim that mentoring holds promise for beginning teacher development, increased retention of novice teachers, and mentorteacher improvement. Drawing on positioning theory, this study describes negotiation of power and position in a failed triad composed of a public school mentor, a university mathematics supervisor, and an intern teacher. Data reveal how each member of the triad sought to make sense of his or her experience and to accomplish desired aims. The activity of positioning and being positioned within the triad profoundly shaped each participant’s experience and ultimately interfered with the intern’s induction into teaching.

Mentoring and the emotions

Drawing on data from nine secondary school mentor teachers, the authors explore the emotional aspects of mentoring. Embracing a view of ‘cool’ professionalism, the mentors hid from their interns the intensity and complexity of their work as mentors. The authors argue that to maximize the value of mentoring neophyte teachers should be given a glimpse into its difficulty as part of engaging in rich conversations about teaching and learning.

More than a place to teach: exploring the perceptions of the roles and responsibilities of mentor teachers

The purpose of this study was to shed light on mentor teachers’ perceptions of their roles and responsibilities and to contrast their understandings with a normative view of mentoring (Goldsberry, 1998; Hawkey, 1997). We hypothesized that the mentor teachers’ perceptions would likely differ from established conceptions of this construct, a difference that has significant implications for mentor preparation and university collaboration. Participants, 264 teachers who were serving as mentors to pre‐service teachers, were asked open‐ended questions designed to allow the mentors to describe the ways in which they envisioned their role. Follow‐up telephone interviews were conducted with 34 randomly selected mentor teachers to further determine the relative value they placed on different aspects of mentoring. The results of this research confirm that mentoring is a complex construct and that the perceptions held by mentors may be influenced by the kinds and quality of mentoring experiences they have had. Implications for the appropriate selection, preparation, and support of mentor teachers are discussed.

Why Content-Area Literacy Messages Do Not Speak to Mathematics Teachers: A Critical Content Analysis.

Much has been written to convince content-area teachers to include literacy instruction as part of their regular content instruction. The purpose of this study was to determine how the messages available in the literature are framed and how they might be viewed by content-area teachers, especially mathematics teachers. The analysis revealed that messages available to content-area teachers about literacy neglect, deemphasize, or misrepresent mathematics and/or mathematics education. These findings may help explain why content-area teachers, particularly mathematics teachers, resist ideas related to content-area literacy instruction

Novice teacher growth and personal models of mentoring: choosing compassion over inquiry

This article presents a model of mentoring which may be used as an analytic tool for reflecting on practices commonly employed in supporting beginning teachers. Eighteen mentors and 36 intern teachers whom they mentored were participants in the study. Analysis of data revealed three general patterns of mentoring—responsive, interactive, and directive—and eight dimensions of mentoring related to: (a) emotional availability; (b) levels of engagement; (c) degree of investment in mentoring relationships; and (d) the capacity for criticalness in their mentoring. Variability among mentors in their ways of enacting the three general mentoring patterns was accounted for by their individual preferences in the eight dimensions of mentoring. Cases representing each general pattern of mentoring are presented, and instances reflecting shifts in general mentoring patterns are explored. Implications for teacher educators who select, prepare, support, or serve as mentors are discussed.

Different Goals, Similar Practices: Making Sense of the Mathematics and Literacy Instruction in a Standards-Based Mathematics Classroom.

This article describes both the process and products of a cooperative inquiry project between two educational researchers—one from literacy education and one from mathematics education. The collaboration took place in an undergraduate, inquiry-based mathematics classroom in which the researchers sought to develop a shared vision of learning and literacy. The researchers discovered that they each used a different learning model to make sense of mathematics instruction, and that both of these models obscured important aspects of learning in a Standards-based mathematics classroom. An alternative model of learning and literacy in mathematics that takes into consideration both models is presented, as well as the process through which the researchers negotiated this shared perspective.

One‐year teaching internships and the dimensions of beginning teacher development

The authors draw on data from weekly e‐mail responses to a questionnaire completed by beginning teachers placed in one‐year, paid, internships. Interns were assigned mentors who responded every several weeks, also via e‐mail, to a questionnaire about the interns and their development. Data from 23 interns were analyzed. Seven themes were identified that capture various dimensions of intern development. To portray the nature, direction and complexity of intern development, each of the dimensions is conceptualized in terms of opposable orientations to the defining aspect of each theme. The authors use the dimensions and their related orientations to organize the data for discussion. Conclusions related to each dimension are situated within the wider research literature on teacher development, and some similarities and differences are noted between this group of interns and what is widely reported about beginning teacher development. Dimension Opposing orientations 1) Dominating concerns Self‐absorbed ⟨⟩ looking outward 2) Approach to problem‐solving Trial & error testing ⟨⟩ informed tinkering 3) Relationship with children Group oriented ⟨⟩ seeking individual connections 4) Emotional state Vulnerable ⟨⟩ steady, consistent, confident 5) Professional commitment Just passing through ⟨⟩ invested 6) Sense of responsibility Defensive ⟨⟩ at fault

What's More Important—Literacy or Content? Confronting the Literacy-Content Dualism

Abstract The literacy-content dualism, which suggests that teachers must decide whether to provide literacy or content instruction, is a false dualism and adherence to it is detrimental to student participation in content-area reasoning, learning, and communicating. This article describes the experiences that prompted the teacher educators who authored this article to reconsider content and literacy instruction and their first steps to help preservice and in-service teachers confront and eliminate the literacy-content dualism. Suggestions for future research are made.

Re)imagining Literacy and Teacher Preparation Through Collaboration

This article reports the outcomes of the first 3 years of an ongoing participatory action research (PAR) project that brought together literacy and content-area teacher educators. The purpose of our collaboration was two-fold: (a) to develop shared understandings or theories related to literacy and the place of literacy instruction in content-area classrooms, and (b) to make changes to our work with preservice teachers in order to prepare them to support adolescents’ content learning and discipline-specific literacy development. The findings reveal that the collaborative activities allowed participants to embrace broad notions of text and literacy that are useful in making sense of disciplinary aims and pedagogy. Furthermore, as teacher educators came to shift their thinking about literacy and disciplinary learning and teaching, their work with preservice teachers changed. Implications for future collaborative activities to promote content-area literacy are discussed.

Seeking renewal, finding community: participatory action research in teacher education

This narrative study describes the experiences of a group of teacher educators as they worked together in a collaborative research activity investigating theories of literacy and the preparation of secondary teachers. The collaboration was organized around the precepts associated with participatory action research (PAR). After four years of collaboration, the narratives of the members of the group revealed (a) changes to the practices and identities of the participants, (b) how the group formed a community, and (c) the ways in which the institution supported the work of the group. Organizing collaborative activities around PAR holds promise to not only produce quality research, but to support the improvement of teacher preparation programs and the development of teacher educators. However, this work requires institutional support that fosters collaborative work without mandating either collaborations or outcomes.