Multi-layered mentoring: exemplars from a U.S. STEM teacher education program

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article presents a multi-layered approach to mentoring within an urban secondary teacher education program in the mid-southern United States. The featured case focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), although multi-layered mentoring could occur in other subject areas or in general preservice teacher education. The goal is to address the shortage of qualified teachers in the school districts in one of the largest, most diverse American metropolises. This narrative inquiry research captures preservice teachers' experiences of multi-layered mentoring in the form of exemplars. The evidence for the narrative exemplars is produced by the interpretive tools of broadening, burrowing and storying/restorying. Broadening captures the case’s research backdrop (i.e., history, events); burrowing digs deeply into individuals’ experiential narratives; and storying/restorying captures changes that happened over time and place. Three themes emerged from the case's four exemplars: 1) interactions in knowledge communities, 2) trying on of future selves, and 3) engaging in inquiry. The experience-rich exemplars, along with these common overarching themes, distinguish the multi-layered mentoring approach. In the spotlighted case, 88% of those who graduated from the secondary STEM preservice education program were retained over a 5-year period, which exceeds the retention rates of the participating urban school districts.