Mentoring novice teachers: developing a community of practice

Abstract

Mentoring new teachers is critical to music education, not only for purposes of retention and attrition, but also to provide the support they need to become reflective practitioners. Researchers consistently report that novice music teachers share feelings of being overwhelmed by the duties and responsibilities of teaching. In 2004—05, a local school district (USA) employed five novice elementary general music teachers. Through the district, I offered a professional development program to these teachers to provide mentoring during the entire school year. With their consent, this program was used to collect data reflective of their experiences throughout the year, exploring the nature of their lived experience and, emergently, the growth of a community of practice. Data included the email correspondence of all participants, each teacher's end-of-year reflective journal, a personal log reflecting my perspective and an audio-recorded group discussion conducted at the end of the school year. Two key issues arose during the year that profoundly affected the professional self-confidence of these novice teachers: their struggles with classroom management, and issues that arose during their experiences with the district's process of teacher evaluation. Within the context of these common problems, the teachers seemed to value the meetings as an opportunity to give and receive support in a safe, collegial environment, in which all those present understood the parameters of their unique jobs and cared about each other as individuals and music educators. What began as a group of individuals emerged as a community of practice.