Event Title
Transition Into the Teaching Profession: Induction and Mentoring Issues Surrounding Secondary Music Teachers
Start Date
1-6-2011 3:30 PM
End Date
1-6-2011 4:00 PM
Description
The purpose of this study was to investigate the issues surrounding the transition into the teaching profession by specifically focusing on teacher induction and mentoring issues while explicitly addressing matters of concern by secondary music teachers in a large suburban school board in southern Ontario. Participants included beginning teachers with fewer than 5 years of teaching, mid career teachers with between 6 and 15 years of instruction, and experienced teachers with more than 16 years of practice. The processes of mentoring and inducting new teachers within the board were examined, along with their relationships between protégés, mentors, and administrators. Further, internal and external programs specifically designed and implemented for newer music teachers were scrutinized and discussed. Data were collected through 16 personal interviews as well as an analysis of key documents and literature on the subject. The findings suggest that although the necessity of mentoring and induction processes has begun to be recognized, there exists a fundamental relationship between mentoring and induction and the affect of the professional attachments to mentoring; the institutional and administrative supports that are enabled; and essential processes and practices between mentors and protégés. Together these three arms combine to support successful induction and mentoring initiatives that will help ease the transition into teaching.
Transition Into the Teaching Profession: Induction and Mentoring Issues Surrounding Secondary Music Teachers
The purpose of this study was to investigate the issues surrounding the transition into the teaching profession by specifically focusing on teacher induction and mentoring issues while explicitly addressing matters of concern by secondary music teachers in a large suburban school board in southern Ontario. Participants included beginning teachers with fewer than 5 years of teaching, mid career teachers with between 6 and 15 years of instruction, and experienced teachers with more than 16 years of practice. The processes of mentoring and inducting new teachers within the board were examined, along with their relationships between protégés, mentors, and administrators. Further, internal and external programs specifically designed and implemented for newer music teachers were scrutinized and discussed. Data were collected through 16 personal interviews as well as an analysis of key documents and literature on the subject. The findings suggest that although the necessity of mentoring and induction processes has begun to be recognized, there exists a fundamental relationship between mentoring and induction and the affect of the professional attachments to mentoring; the institutional and administrative supports that are enabled; and essential processes and practices between mentors and protégés. Together these three arms combine to support successful induction and mentoring initiatives that will help ease the transition into teaching.