Distinguishing spaces of mentoring: Mentoring as praxis

Abstract

Against a landscape of accreditation and accountability mechanisms that seek to govern the work of teachers from afar, this chapter draws on research and recent innovations in mentoring practices to move discussion on from an historical focus on definitions of the roles of mentors and mentees to consideration of the actual doings of those involved in mentoring relationships. In so doing, it aims to contribute to a conceptualisation of mentoring as praxis, that is, a morally and ethically informed practice. A vignette of dialogic mentoring involving a preservice teacher with a school-based and a university-based teacher educator is drawn on to illustrate the enactment of mentoring as praxis in which all three learn more about the complicated and complex practice of teaching.