Mentoring: A study of processes and relationships in a collaborative curriculum reform research project.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to explore the emerging characteristics of team-mentoring and to discover ways higher education faculty have applied these mentoring techniques and concepts to an educational school reform initiative, TETAC (Transforming Education Through the Arts Challenge 8/1996--8/2001). TETAC was a national educational initiative that took place in five regional institutes across the nation. This case study focused on the mentoring processes of the Ohio TETAC Regional Institute. The shape this model of mentoring took was one of team-mentoring, wherein a mentor or pair of mentors worked with a group of teachers to provide guidance and assistance in the implementation of art education reform and integrated curriculum at five partner school sites.;Data was gathered from document review, observation, formal interviews with the eight mentors involved in the study, and questionnaire responses from the eight mentors as well as the mentors taking part in this reform initiative on the national level. Documents reviewed were obtained from the archives of the TETAC project and included mentor case studies, documentation of mentor meetings, and quarterly reports documenting the TETAC project.;Five topics were investigated in this case study. These topics were embedded in the initial interview questions and were arrived at though reflection by the researcher regarding the TETAC Project. The topics were; relationships and rapport developed, processes encountered by the mentors, challenges faced during the mentoring process, significant achievements, and suggestions for future projects.;Through data analysis and interpretation five themes surfaced that shaped the model of team-mentoring under investigation in this research. Those were, unclear and changing goals, time constraints and school structures, differences in partner school sites, group dynamics, and the importance of reflection. The interpretative findings of this case study reveal that the eight mentors emphasized the need for trust building, reflective practice, consistent and clear goals, and localized evaluation procedures. Another significant finding in this study was the need for personal sharing to occur between the mentor and mentee in order to establish trust and mutual respect, which aids in overcoming the barriers often found in collaborative endeavors between universities and schools.