Understanding Mentoring Relationship Construction In Discourse And Influential Factors During The Practicum Period

Researches on mentoring have generated a variety of typologies both at home and abroad. However, most researchers in this field conduct investigations from grand angles. There is a relatively lack of studies which focus on the observation and analysis of mentoring interaction in practice with some notable exceptions (e.g. Elliott, 1995; Haggerty, 1995; Hawkey, 1998). Similarly, there is little research which explores the influential factors impacting on the mentoring interaction despite the fact that the process of mentoring interaction is the process of integrity of various factors (Bradbury & Koballa, 2008). As Awaya et al. (2003) contend that mentoring is a relationship rather than a role with a set of preconceived duties, more attention should be paid to the intricacies of mentoring interaction itself, especially what mentors actually talk during the process.The purpose of this study is to gain an in-depth understanding of the discursive construction of mentoring relationships and explore the influential factors that impact on mentors' construction of them. Specifically, it attempts to answer two research questions: 1) What mentoring relationships are constructed in mentoring discourses? 2) What factors influence mentors' construction of mentoring relationships?Case study is adopted as the research method in the present study. The research subjects are two English teachers in a Senior High School and eight senior English-major students from a Normal University in Zhejiang Province. The students implement their field-teaching practice in this school and these two English teachers play the role of their mentors. The data collection occupies the first semester of the academic year 2007-2008, with the data sources including lesson planning conversations, interviews, classroom teachings, meetings, journal writings and classroom-field notes. Transcripts of lesson planning conversations have been analyzed in the analytical framework from the perspectives of pronouns, modality, (in)directness of suggestions, and politeness (informed by Fairclough) to explore the construction of mentoring relationships. The transcribed data of interviews, classroom teachings and meetings have been reviewed to draw themes for exploring the influential factors impacting on mentors' construction of them.Study findings reveal that the first mentor have constructed humanistic mentoring relationship with her student teachers which is reflected in her frequent use of the inclusive "We", the median-low relational modality, indirect suggestions, and the high degree of politeness. The second mentor have constructed situated apprentice mentoring relationship with his student teachers which is reflected in his frequent use of the definite "You", the high-median relational modality, direct suggestions, and the low degree of politeness. Moreover, these two mentors' construction of different mentoring relationships are influenced by the school context, their own educational experiences including schooling experiences, experiences as student teachers and teaching experiences, and their daily teaching practices. After the analysis and discussion, implications for optimizing mentor preparation programs and building a productive mentoring relationship are put forward to achieve more effective field teaching practice.