What cooperating music teachers say about educative mentoring: A focus study research project

Abstract

In this study, we examine and provide a framework for “educative mentoring” by investigating five cooperating music teachers’ experiences and strategies of serving as mentors to student teachers. Data collection included a survey, focus groups, and individual interviews. The themes that arose suggest that cooperating teachers use narratives and wait for educative moments to emerge rather than preparing them ahead of time when mentoring. Cooperating teachers also wanted more guidance from the teacher education programs they serve. From this, we suggest that educative mentoring for the cooperating teachers was structured by the negotiation of three dialectical relationships: reflecting versus modeling; emergence versus purposefulness; and learning to teach in specific contexts versus preparation that transfers to teaching music in all settings. These findings may inform music teacher education practice and research by providing a framework for how cooperating teachers support novice teachers’ educational growth and providing cooperating teachers with the guidance they may desire from universities.