Date of Award

Spring 1992

Degree Type

Master's Essay - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Educational Policy and Leadership

Abstract

Throughout the United States, mentoring programs are being initiated in order to make beginning teachers' first years more productive and less frustrating. Toledo, Ohio; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Louisville, Kentucky are just a few large school districts which have implemented such programs. A dominant characteristic of all three programs is the appointment of experienced teachers to assist new teachers and to help them understand the culture of the school. Often the support teacher is designated as a "mentor teacher". Responsibilities of this teacher may include assistance with curriculum matters, guidance in classroom management, and orientation to school policies and procedures. In planning mentoring programs, administrators and teachers can learn from the current research about the complex notion of mentoring. Only fragments of this research on the mentor/inductee association have reached the school setting (Huling-Austin, 1985). The purpose, then, of this paper is threefold: (a) to describe the dilemma of new teachers, (b) to review some of the literature on mentoring among teachers in elementary and secondary schools, and (c) to suggest a possible working model for a beginning teacher mentoring program.

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