Mentoring for Quality Improvement: A Case Study of a Mentor Teacher in the Reform Process

Abstract

As qualified teachers are central to children receiving a high-quality preschool education, many policy initiatives aimed at improving program quality are thwarted when insufficient attention is paid to the professional development of the workforce. One response to this issue has been to create teacher leadership roles so that teachers mentor colleagues through the process of translating policies into practices. This article reports on a case study of one such mentor teacher involved in helping child care teachers implement the High/Scope curriculum. Employing qualitative and quantitative methods, the mentor teacher was found to engage in 14 different activities within the categories of technical assistance, professional development, leadership, district-related work, and other. Despite utilizing skills identified as central to effective mentoring and teacher learning, the mentor teacher found it difficult to assist some teachers because of a lack of expertise, inappropriate training, and multiple job demands. This article argues that these issues, while not new, take on a different meaning when considered in relation to the aims of mentoring roles in early childhood policy efforts when, as often occurs, classroom teachers have more experience than their mentors.