Mentoring

Carol Mullen

Mentoring is often used interchangeably with assisting, guiding, teaching, learning, readiness, compensation, support, and socialization. Studies have focused on the mentoring of preservice and inservice teacher populations with attention gradually accommodating prospective and practicing administrators. This disequilibrium in mentoring is reflected in public school culture, as beginning and prospective administrators from among staff have been largely overlooked. Traditionally, mentorship involves training in skills building and knowledge acquisition, both inside and outside education, and of youth or adults. This kind of relationship—typically needs based and short term—is guided by experienced persons in schools, universities, businesses, or other professional domains who transfer understanding and knowledge to apprentices. Within this framework, mentoring is a unidirectional process wherein the more experienced person teaches and the neophyte learns. This transmission model focuses on objectives in an advising or other situation, not the deeper, more sustaining processes of professional development, lifelong learning, or relationship building. Characteristically, ...

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