From Dependence to Self-Reliance and Competence: One First-Year Science Teacher in a Mentoring Relationship

Abstract This article is about one first-year science teacher in a formal mentoring program and how, with the support of her mentor, she made the transition from dependence to self reliance and competence. In the context of their powerfully personal and mutually respectful relationship, her mentor modeled the roles of care giver, fellow learner, and buddy. Such Mentoring relationships are necessarily based on a shared appreciation for both the complexities of teaching and the promise in new instructional approaches, as well as on the mentor's proximity and availability. Thus schedules and teaching assignments need to be arranged accordingly, and mentors need practical knowledge about mentoring relationships in order to identify the roles that foster growth in the teachers they mentor. Carole and Janice An outdoor enthusiast and accomplished athlete, Carole was a 25-year-old, first-year teacher. She was teaching seventh and eighthgrade science in a junior/senior high school in a rural area of the Northeast. After earning a baccalaureate degree in biology, Carole had completed a one-year, science teacher preparation program. In the culminating semester of the program, she had two seven-week studentteaching experiences: first teaching biology to high school ninth graders and then teaching life science to middle school seventh graders. In their anecdotal reports, her cooperating teachers and college supervisor each wholeheartedly recommended her for a teaching position, independently commending her for her thoroughly prepared, lively, and cohesive lessons and her overall professional comportment. Between the two other science teachers in the junior high division of Carole's school, Carole's supervisor selected Janice to be her mentor. Forty years old with 15 years of experience teaching primarily earth science, Janice was respected by her colleagues as an exemplary teacher. In addition, she shared Carole's enthusiasm for sports and the outdoors. Carole and Janice's classrooms were next to each other, their schedules were congruent, and they taught the same seventh and eighth-grade science curricula. Each course consisted of four quarterly units: three in earth science (geology, meteorology, and astronomy) and one in life science. In addition to teaching five classes, Carole and Janice each met for one period a day with the members of their respective instructional teams, four other teachers, each teaching a dif ferent academic subject to the same set of students. The requirement for their district's Mentoring program, however, was simply that Carole and Janice meet with each other once a month. During an interview in late May of her first year, Carole gave an account of her experience as a first-year teacher in a formal Mentoring program. The prearranged, 90-minute interview was focused on her progress over the course of the year primarily vis-a-vis her relationship with Janice. The interview was audio taped, and the tape transcribed. Formal Mentoring Programs Formal mentoring programs for teachers like Carole have been proliferating rapidly since the 1980's (Abell, Dillon, Hopkins, McInerney, & O'Brien, 1995; Furtwengler, 1995; Gold, 1996; Huffman & Leak, 1986; Little, 1990). In such programs, an experienced teacher, the mentor, is officially charged with and receives some compensation for guiding the professional development of the first-year teacher. The goal of such programs is to improve the performance of beginning teachers and reduce the high rate of their attrition (Colbert & Wolff, 1992; Darling-Hammond, 1996; Feiman-Nemser & Parker, 1992; HulingAustin, 1990b; Plummer & Barrow, 1998). In contrast to the informal support that has been customarily received from experienced teachers by beginning teachers, formal programs cast mentors in a pro-active role, creating the experiences and activities that promote professional growth rather than merely responding to immediate calls for help (Neal, 1992). …