Conceptual Models of Mentoring

Derek

After spending most of his elementary schooling in one location, Derek and his family moved and therefore, changed school districts. Since the move came as Derek was entering Grade Nine, he was looking forward to the additional extracurricular activities and courses offered in a larger centre. He enthusiastically flew out the door on the first day of school, trying to keep any observable anxieties at bay.

Derek was a bright, active member of his elementary school and the gifted program. He was a late bloomer with a small build, and was surprised at how shy he found himself in his new surroundings. Many  of the students knew each other, and had formed strong 'cliques'.  For the first few months, when at a loss, he retreated to the library and the comfort of a good book. Over time however, he gradually began to find friends that shared some common interests.

By grade ten however, a small group of students decided to make Derek and his friends the focus of their attention. They took them one-by-one into the change room (out of the surveillance of teachers or cameras), and beat them. They were careful to ensure that bruises would not be visible when clothed.  Some had undignified cell phone pictures taken of them to ensure their silence by threatening to post them on the web if they 'squealed'.

Derek did not know what to do. He was well aware of the 'Safe Schools' Policy' that suggested the first line of defence was to tell a trusted adult. However, he believed that telling an adult could only make his life worse. At 15, being branded  a 'rat' was worse than the beating.

He grew sullen, angry, and his grades dropped drastically. When his parents went to the school, the teachers were at a loss to explain it. Everyone wondered if this was adolescent rebellion, or if he was perhaps taking drugs. After skipping school chronically, he left the school system all together.

• How aware are we as teachers of the student culture in our schools?
• Consider the following responses, and think about the position that they put children like Derek in:
  • You need to develop a thicker skin
  • Learn to solve your own problems
  • Ignore them and it will be ok
• What 'default assumptions' do we make about students who are late? (absent, sullen, not handing in homework).
• What can we do to change the school culture that allows this to happen while the children are in our care?

Sam

Sam, works with Priscilla, a younger mentor teacher in her fifth year of teaching (and second year in this “urban” district), who structured her classroom and her teaching this year in a strongly authoritarian manner. He is a young white man who is an active participant in--and occasional performer of--hip-hop culture, and very quickly established a friendly rapport with the mostly Black and Latino students. This produced a minor mutiny one afternoon early in the year, after he had gone to his university classes, in which the students clamoured, “We want Mr. Long!”, and accused Priscilla of being jealous of him. He hasn’t been as successful, however, in getting all the students to be respectful of one another in the classroom.

As the year has progressed, he has struggled more and more with his own bewilderment at students’ resistance to the highly innovative curriculum Priscilla is piloting for the district, and their frequent mistreatment of one another both in and out of class. How is he to construct his own authority in the classroom in such a way as to promote learning and mutual respect and remain true to his beliefs, which he has named as “revolutionary?” How can he do this, in particular, respecting Priscilla’s authority as a powerful, innovative teacher he sincerely appreciates, but whose style of authority, partly because of her gender and cultural background, is very different from his?

Sam finds himself caught between the discourses of authority – which he understands as the need to respect his mentor and stand before his students – and freedom, which he also needs to practice as a teacher and to stimulate in his students. Intimidation and coddling are both oppressive, as Freire has pointed out, and teachers of colour have known for generations. How does a young, white teacher – albeit one steeped in hip-hop culture that was at the Million Man March – steer between them?

A subtler form of this tension came up when we discussed curriculum planning. When we asked Sam to come up with “enduring understandings” which he wanted his students to take away from a unit he would be teaching using Walter Dean Myers’ novel Slam, he could only come up with a vague generalization about the students realizing that “their world” could be written about. It was clear to us that this was deeply insufficient, and perilously close to intellectually coddling his 9th graders: they needed to be challenged to find deeper levels of meaning and more ways in which the text spoke to the struggles of their lived experience. His authority needed to be exercised in the work of planning, and this in turn required, for now, that he submit to our university-sanctioned authority--no less paradoxical than requiring his students to submit to his own school-sanctioned authority--in preparing a detailed unit plan spelling out the ways he would use this text to lay the groundwork for his students’ exercise of freedom.

Is the exercise of authority, as we are often tempted to frame it, a matter of “how much?” Is there, for any given teaching/learning situation, a “just enough” level of authority to be exercised – less than a level we would call “oppressive” and more than some “permissive” minimum? Or are there other criteria of discernment to be applied to specific instances of conflict or choice, that need to be exercised for each occasion? If so--as it seems to us--what are those criteria?

How is one to know when one is pushing against internalized oppression, and when one is serving as an active agent of its institutionalized forms?

Sanjay:

You and your mentee, Sanjay, have worked well together. You have established an effective classroom climate. Your coaching mentorship style led you to ask probing questions that encouraged Sanjay to reflect and to construct his own classroom strategies. Until recently, Sanjay has not experienced difficulties with classroom management. However, a student has begun to act out, and Sanjay has been unable to control the student’s disruptive behaviour. Sanjay asks you for help. You would:

• Go into Sanjay's classroom and deal with the disruptive student yourself?
• Encourage Sanjay to work out the solution himself?
• Brainstorm some ideas with Sanjay, let him try some out, and meet later to reflect on their effectiveness?
• Listen to Sanjay's ideas about how to solve the problem and give him some feedback?

Jane

You are an experienced physical education teacher in a small school district. Changes in the provincial curriculum expectations and policy for implementation of Phys. Ed. programs have recently been mandated. Jane was hired this year. She has three years of experience teaching a variety of grades and subjects, but this is the first assignment with a physical education focus. You are Jane’s mentor.

Since the opening day of the school year, Jane has handled responsibility extremely well. She has also demonstrated an excellent understanding of her subject area and how to teach it. Jane agrees with the changes to the curriculum, and respects the need for revision. Although she has no previous experience implementing curriculum changes, she appears to be quite good at tracking down information. You would:

• Oversee the curriculum revision, but allow Jane considerable involvement and input?
• Delegate Jane the authority and responsibility for the revisions?
• Revise the curriculum yourself and make sure Jane understands and follows it?
• Revise the curriculum, but ask for Jane's recommendations?

Michael

As a first-year Vice Principal, Michael, your mentee, is doing well in his new role. Recently, however, he has become a non-conformist when it comes to following school policy and paying attention to everyday procedures. Some of the staff are becoming annoyed with Michael because they perceive his behaviour will soon be causing problems. When you point this out to Michael, he tells you that he will try to pay more attention to policies but after a week or two, there is no change. As his mentor, you would:

• Keep a low profile and allow Michael to experience the consequences of his behaviour, and let him take responsibility for working out his own problems;
• Insist that Michael follow the rules and keep close tabs on his behaviour;
• Ask Michael how he will deal with the situation and offer y;our help and advice
• Redefine and clarify for Michael the expectations and responsibilities having to do with policies and procedures, monitor his progress and reinforce positive behaviour.