Mentoring in the Graduate Diploma Program: Support Structures and Resources for Community Building

Grant program: Teaching and Learning Development Grant (TLDG)

Grant recipients: Paula Howarth, Field Programs, Faculty of Education

Project team: Paula Rosehart, Field Programs, Faculty of Education, Sonia Maglio and Vanessa Martino, research assistants

Timeframe: September 2014 to August 2016

Funding: $5,000

Courses addressed: EDUC courses in Field Programs

Final report: View Paula Howarth's final report (PDF)

Description: Mentoring is an integral aspect of the Field Programs, Graduate Diploma cohort model.  Mentors working in various Graduate Diplomas support in-service teachers by providing small group and one-on-one support, guidance, resources, theory, and feedback working alongside teachers as they critically examine and assess their teaching practice. 

Mentors in the Graduate Diploma Program have requested support to define their role and responsibilities to build a community of practice. The program relies on Mentors to facilitate conversations with teacher learners who are pursuing individual inquiries in their K-12 classrooms. Our goal is to provide clarity around the Mentor/Mentee relationship in Field Programs and provide specific resources to support the mentoring role and responsibilities.

Our intent is to provide an Interactive Orientation in October 2014 to give a job description for new Mentors, a Collaborative Mentor Conference for Mentors in February 2015 to provide resources, and tools to meet the needs of their Mentees and allow them to share successes and challenges with other Mentors. Through this research project, we will develop a shared resource ‘bank’ that In-Service Faculty Associates and Mentors in Field Programs can access on Canvas and utilize to support mentoring in our programs. 

Questions addressed:

• What do In-Service Faculty Associates and Mentors consider to be the role and responsibilities of Mentors in Field Programs?
• What are the strategies and resources that In-service Faculty Associates use while working with their mentors?
• What do Mentors consider to be the strategies and resources that Mentors need?
• How will the space on Canvas be utilized by In-Service Faculty Associates to support Mentors working with teacher learners in Field Programs?
• How will the space on Canvas be utilized by mentors to support teacher learners in Field Programs?

Knowledge sharing:

Howarth, P., & Rosenhart, P. (2015, June). A mentoring model: Support structures and resources for community building. Paper presented at the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) Annual Conference, Vancouver, BC.