The P–16 Strategic Collaboration Model: A Team Mentoring Approach

Abstract

Teacher attrition is an enduring national issue. To help address this problem, formal mentoring programs for new teachers have been implemented by most states. Mentoring, however, is rarely used beyond the induction years. This article presents an adaptation of a business model, the Strategic Collaboration Model^TM, which approaches mentoring as a network activity. This collaborative, peer-oriented strategy was used successfully with female university professors in a pilot program. Applications for teachers across the P–16 spectrum are discussed.

Acknowledgments

Mara H. Wasburn is an Associate Professor of Organizational Leadership at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. Her scholarship focuses on mentoring, especially mentoring women in technology-rich disciplines. Her research has appeared in Mentoring & Tutoring, Review of Business, and Advancing Women in Leadership.

Leah Wasburn-Moses is an Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. Her scholarship focuses on teacher education, special education, and policy. Her research has appeared in Action in Teacher Education, Remedial and Special Education, and Preventing School Failure.

Jay Blackman is a Technology Coordinator for Brookwood School District 167 in Glenwood, Illinois. He is involved with K–8 classroom technology integration, educational leadership support, interactive multimedia development, and problem-based learning initiatives.

Notes

Cooperrider, D. L. 1986. Appreciative inquiry: Toward a methodology for understanding and enhancing organizational innovation. Ph.D. diss., Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH.