Mentor or Tormentor: The Role of the Cooperating Teacher in Student Teacher Success or Failure

Abstract

Student teaching is often thought of as the “capstone” experience in teacher education, the culminating activity in preservice professional preparation. Researchers have recently begun to examine the issue of preservice teachers who “fail” student teaching and the circumstances that contribute to their failure. It appears that some failures may not be due to student teacher shortcomings. A presupposed but uncritically examined assumption of both preservice teachers and teacher preparation institutions is that cooperating teachers in field placement classrooms act as mentors on behalf of their student teachers, helping them to translate theory to practice. However, due to misunderstandings or miscommunication about roles and expectations, some student teacher-cooperating teacher dyads appear to be “tormentor” relationships. There is little in the literature that addresses this dynamic, particularly as it relates to student teacher success or failure. This preliminary study explores expectations, perceptions, and qualities of mentoring relationships between cooperating teachers and student teachers at two teacher preparation institutions. Specifically, this research aims to isolate salient features or dimensions of the mentor relationship which, if absent, will contribute to unsatisfactory and unsuccessful mentoring and/or student teaching experiences. Additionally, specific programmatic recommendations for preparing cooperating teachers for mentoring relationships in student teacher supervision are addressed.