Who Learns to Teach? Student-Teachers as Change Agents, Mentor-Teachers as Learners

ABSTRACT

Teachers’ professional learning is a desired goal, which contributes to the improvement of educational outcomes. Some claim it can take place on the job, specifically when teachers co-teach with and mentor student-teachers. Nevertheless, only little is known regarding student-teachers’ role in shaping the learning experience of mentor-teachers. We present findings from a multiple case study focusing on mentors’ professional learning. We explain how student-teachers’ professional agency and use of resources may create professional learning opportunities for mentors and influence their learning. We contend that unpacking this process can provide information on how teacher preparation programmes can cultivate student-teachers’ agency and their influence upon mentor-teachers’ learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Professional learning
• professional agency
• mentoring
• co-teachers
• student-teachers

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Editor and two anonymous referees for their fruitful comments. In addition, we are indebted to Professor Sharon Feiman-Nemser who read an early version of this manuscript and generously provided us with valuable insights that helped improving this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Participants identified successful MTs’ as those who were capable to influence STs’ professional knowledge, develop their teaching expertise and offer organisational and emotional support through the use of various mentoring practices (modelling, observations, feedback etc.). We elaborate on this topic elsewhere (Carmi and Tamir 2021).

2. A series of high stakes standardised exams in all core subjects that are taken at high school and serve for university and college admission decisions in Israel.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Tel Aviv University [internal grant from the School of Education].

Notes on contributors

Tal Carmi

Tal Carmi is a PhD student in the School of Education at Tel Aviv University, Department of Educational Policy & Administration. He works at Hashkafa – Teacher Leaders R&D team at the MOFET Institute. Both his research and professional work focus on teachers' professional learning and development.

Eran Tamir

Eran Tamir (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer at Tel Aviv University School of Education. He heads the Education and Social Change Concentration in the Dept. of Educational Policy and Administration. A sociologist and an educational policy scholar in his training, Dr. Tamir’s research focuses on the social context of educational policy, teacher careers and professionalization, neoliberalism and education inequities, and the rising involvement of NGOs and technology corporations in public education. Dr. Tamir has a double major Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology and Political Science and a Master’s Degree in Sociology from Tel Aviv University. He received his PhD in Education Policy from Michigan State University and completed a Post Doctorate at Brandeis University.