Not a Moment to Lose: Mentoring Teacher Candidates for New Cultures and Climate

Mentoring for early career teachers is well-documented. Less research exists on formal mentoring for preservice teachers, but early attrition rates are so alarming that we cannot afford to lose any time in preparing novices for the challenges they will face. This research explored mentoring support provided to pre-service, or novice, teachers in a K12 reading clinic at a state research university. The state has experienced dramatic expansion in linguistic and cultural diversity over the last 25 years, with a concurrent shortage of ESL-certified teachers. While the reading clinic does not provide formal ESL services, more than half the children who attend are English Language Learners. Novices tutoring in the clinic gained experience teaching ELLs as well as experience teaching reading. Since less than 10% of teachers trained at this university earn ESL endorsements, this experience is the only formal training for teaching ELLs that most novices receive. We detail the actions of one exemplary mentor, who had ESL training and experience, as she prepared novices to work with ELLs: negotiating the equity and social justice concerns that accompany learning for all students, especially ELLs and others who represent the changing demographics of our nation and our schools. Disciplines Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Leadership | Elementary Education | Language and Literacy Education | Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Comments This article is published as Hayden, H. E. , & Gratteau-Zinnel, T. * (2019). Not a moment to lose: Mentoring teacher candidates for new climates and cultures. Mid-western Educational Researcher, 31(2), 144-165. Posted with permission. This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/edu_pubs/132 NOT A MOMENT TO LOSE Mid-Western Educational Researcher • Volume 31, Issue 2 144 Not a Moment to Lose: Mentoring Teacher Candidates for New Cultures and Climate Emily Hayden Iowa State University Travis Gratteau-Zinnel Iowa State University Mentoring for early career teachers is well-documented. Less research exists on formal mentoring for pre-service teachers, but early attrition rates are so alarming that we cannot afford to lose any time in preparing novices for the challenges they will face. This research explored mentoring support provided to pre-service, or novice, teachers in a K12 reading clinic at a state research university. The state has experienced dramatic expansion in linguistic and cultural diversity over the last 25 years, with a concurrent shortage of ESL-certified teachers. While the reading clinic does not provide formal ESL services, more than half the children who attend are English Language Learners. Novices tutoring in the clinic gained experience teaching ELLs as well as experience teaching reading. Since less than 10% of teachers trained at this university earn ESL endorsements, this experience is the only formal training for teaching ELLs that most novices receive. We detail the actions of one exemplary mentor, who had ESL training and experience, as she prepared novices to work with ELLs: negotiating the equity and social justice concerns that accompany learning for all students, especially ELLs and others who represent the changing demographics of our nation and our schools.