published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

The connection between teacher practices and efficacy beliefs and the connection between teacher practices and professional development has been explored empirically (Allinder, 1994; Boardman & Woodruff, 2004; Cohen & Hill, 2001). However, there is a need to examine how mentoring and professional development opportunities for novice teachers function in relation to their efficacy beliefs and teaching practices. This study contributes to the novice teacher literature by examining the interrelations among these constructs. Data for this study were collected from 81 first-year teachers across seven school districts. Data were collected during the fall, winter, and spring using a classroom observation rubric, interviews, and a survey measure. Data were analyzed to look for relationships among teachers' perceptions of their mentoring and professional development experiences, actual classroom practices, and their efficacy beliefs. Results indicated considerable differences in mentoring for teachers in K-2, 3-5, and 6-8; they also indicated grade-level trends on the focus of professional development activities. Findings suggest the stability of teacher efficacy beliefs across the school year. For some districts, there appeared to be a relationship between efficacy scores and the frequency with which teachers reported meeting with their mentors. Lastly, findings suggest that mentors and professional development play important roles at the beginning of the school year. Results also suggest a relationship between teaching practices at the beginning of the school year and efficacy beliefs at the end of the school year for some teachers and districts.

This dissertation challenges the traditional patriarchal conception of mentoring, in which mentors are cast as experts and the task for novices is to assimilate their mentors' knowledge and proposes an alternate feminist conception in which mentors and novices are learner-teachers. The conception is based on practices of conversation and shared experience, through which mentoring partners develop trust and reciprocity. Through reciprocity, mentoring dyads move to a practice of thoughtful critique, in which they trouble taken-for-granted structures within schools. Central to feminist mentoring are issues of concern to the teachers involved, including issues of gender, race and culture as experienced in their own lives. To explore the conception of feminist mentoring, a qualitative research study was undertaken. Data about four mentoring dyads and one triad were collected through a series of structured interviews with individuals and pairs of teachers during one school year. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and the resulting transcripts were analyzed for common themes. It was found that more successful dyads formed on the basis of the beginning teacher's choice and involved considerable time commitment. Successful mentoring dyads participated in frequent conversations, both casual and planned, in which they talked about students, shared resources, and co-planned curriculum. Conversations centred on both work-related and personal issues. The most successful dyad created numerous shared experiences which provided opportunities for the partners to learn reciprocally. Mentoring conversations and shared experiences led to two complementary ways of coming to know about teaching. In percolated learning the beginning teacher came to know based on hearing and thinking about the mentor's experiences. Thoughtful critique is a more deliberate mode of learning in which the mentor and beginning teachers intentionally address issues of common concern. Although there was some evidence of explicit thoughtful critique emerging within the mentorships, critique was expressed tentatively and cautiously. I suggest that the conditions of schools discourage critique and beginning teachers feel discouraged from being overtly critical. Mentoring dyads may need to work together for more than one year to develop a sufficient level of trust to move to a more critical feminist reconception of mentoring that supports and challenges both mentors and beginning teachers.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas State University-San Marcos, 2007. / Vita. Appendix: leaves 173-189. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-203).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2004. / Adviser: C.T. Patrick Diamond.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2007. / Joyce E. Many, committee chair; Mona W. Matthews, Dana L. Fox, Lori N. Elliott, committee members. Electronic text (190 p. : ill. (some col.)) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed June 19, 2008; title from file title page. Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-187).

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references (p.95-101).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2008. / Additional advisors: Nataliya Ivankova, Rosemary Newton, Linda Searby, Yu-Mei Wang. Description based on contents viewed Oct. 9, 2008; title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 174-185).

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Georgia Southern University, 2008. / "A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education." Under the direction of Abebayehu Tekleselassie. ETD. Electronic version approved: May 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-199) and appendices.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1993. / Includes tables. Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Linda Darling-Hammond. Dissertation Committee: H Jane Rogers. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-184).