Mentor Teacher Positioning during Pedagogical Documentation with Early Childhood Preservice Teachers

Teacher education research shows that partnerships among mentor teachers and preservice teachers facilitate meaningful professional development when both are afforded the opportunity to assume dynamic positions of teacher and learner. The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive case study was to explore mentor positioning and pedagogical documentation at a university-based early childhood center with five mentor teachers (MTs) and five undergraduate preservice teachers (PTs). It explored the efficacy of pedagogical documentation review as a tool to facilitate moments of reciprocal mentoring. Through the framework of cultural-historical activity theory and subject positioning theory, I investigated how mentors positioned themselves during pedagogical documentation and examined how mentor positioning impacted dyadic learning experiences. Data included video recordings of mentor meetings, reflective journals, and interviews. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and cycles of inductive and deductive coding. Findings indicated that some mentors in the above positioning offered support for PTs’ sustained professional growth. In the below position, mentors invited PTs into their decision-making processes and adopted a growth mindset that illustrated their own need for continuous learning. Mentors described the practice of patient listening as a strategy for increasing PT contribution in the equal position. In a few exchanges, mentors and PTs both took the position of learner, and the documentation itself became the teacher – leading to the construction of new knowledge and a greater-we positioning. The discussion guides teacher educators to reconsider whether independence or collaboration is the ultimate goal of teacher preparation and draws careful attention to the pedagogy of listening within the mentoring relationship.