Mentor teacher professional identity development in a year-long teacher residency

ABSTRACT

In this article I examined the professional identity development of five mentor teachers in a year-long, clinically rich teacher residency partnered between a university-based teacher education program and schools in a southern state of the United States. Qualitative data were collected through classroom observation and individual semi-structured interviews with a focus on participants’ mentoring activities and the ways they enacted and described their identities. Participants came to new mentoring beliefs and practices as they navigated the residency and developed a multifaceted identity to mediate their learning to become mentors and teacher educators. Implications for mentor teacher professional support, teacher preparation, and future research were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Mentor teacher
• teacher education
• teacher residency
• professional identity development

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to the journal’s editors and anonymous reviewers for their perceptive feedback and thoughtful recommendations. I sincerely thank Weijia Wang for reading and commenting on earlier drafts of this article. I am also indebted to Heather Kennedy for her support that made this project possible. Most of all, I thank all mentor teachers and residents who participated in this study, from whom I learned a great deal.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Frances Davis Hammond Endowed Professorship in Education (2017-2020), University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Notes on contributors

Yiting Chu

Yiting Chu, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the School of Education, University of Louisiana at Monroe, USA. Dr. Chu’s research interests include multicultural education, teacher education, civic education, and curriculum studies.