Understanding the Experience of Mentor Teachers as Teacher Leaders in a Secondary School Context

Recognition that beginning teachers require ongoing support in their first year of teaching gave rise to Ontario's New Teacher Induction Program which started in September of 2006. This program created a new role for classroom teachers to become informal teacher leaders as they support beginning teachers. Although numerous studies explore pre-service candidate experiences and responses to their induction, few examine the perspective of school-based mentors who repeatedly support novice teachers following the pre-service program. This study focuses the lens on mentors and gives voice to their experiences and perspectives. In so doing, it explores supports that influence mentor understanding and enactment of their role as teacher leaders, describing mentor orientations towards learning to teach, and illustrating how mentors interpret and implement this induction policy. It highlights mentor practices including the costs and benefits of performing their role as educational companions, decoders of instructional practice, local and transitional guides, professional interpreters, and agents of change.This qualitative study explores educational reform through the lenses of teacher leadership, mentoring, and educational change implementation through semi-structured interviews with 17 secondary school mentors who support beginning teachers as part of this provincial new teacher induction program in one urban district in the province of Ontario, Canada. Findings from this study inform policy developers, teacher educators, school and district leaders, and researchers providing insight into mentor interactions and contributions as participants in the induction of new teachers.Ph.D