| This study was a response to the research literature on mentoring that called for the development of a theoretical framework to conceptualize mentoring interactions and the cultural context in which mentoring takes place (Hawkney, 1997, 1998; Warren-Little, 1990; Zeichner, 1986). In this case study research I examined the mentoring activity of preservice secondary mathematics students and their cooperating teachers as they engaged in learning to teach reform based mathematics. I adopted a sociocultural perspective (Rogoff, 1995, 1997) to examine mentoring. My research highlighted, (1) the institutional context (schools and teacher education programs), (2) the interpersonal practices of mentoring, and (3) the individuals' orientations to mentoring as they impacted development. To conduct this study I utilized qualitative research methods of participant observation, interviews, and artifact collection. I found that participants defined the activity of mentoring by importing the sociocultural practices of more familiar professional communities into their practices and understandings of mentoring. These practices were the forms of participation that constituted mentoring. In addition, professional communities informed individuals' orientations toward mentoring, guiding how they both developed and participated in mentoring activity. The negotiated understanding of participants' forms of participation resulted in the development of preservice teachers learning to teach reform based practices. Implications of this work are the need to (1) build connections between preservice teachers' professional experiences prior to student teaching and the mentoring activity during student teaching, (2) support mentoring capacity of participants through mentor and mentee education, (3) create bridges between teacher education and schools to facilitate cohesive educational opportunities, and (4) pay added attention to the selection of mentors who have cultivated memberships in reform based mathematics professional communities. |
