Administrative context and novice teacher-mentor interactions
| Published date | 02 February 2015 |
| Date | 02 February 2015 |
| Pages | 40-65 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-06-2013-0073 |
| Author | Ben Pogodzinski |
| Subject Matter | Education,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy |
Administrative context and
novice teacher-mentor
interactions
Ben Pogodzinski
College of Education, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Abstract
Purpose –Mentoring can improve novice teacher effectiveness and reduce teacher attrition, yet the
depth and breadth of mentoring can vary greatly within and between schools. The purpose of
this paper is to identify the extent to which a school’s administrative context is associated with the
focus and frequency of novice teacher-mentor interactions.
Design/methodology/approach –By estimating logistic regression models, the author identified
the association between novices’perceptions of their working conditions and the content and
frequency of interactions with their formally assigned mentors.
Findings –When novice teachers perceived positive administrator-teacher relations in their schools
and reported that administrative duties did not interfere with their core work as teachers, they were
more likely to frequently interact with their mentors around issues of curriculum.
Research limitations/implications –Studies of new teacher induction need to more fully account
for elements of school-level organizational context which influence novice teacher-mentor interactions,
specifically related to administrative decision making and climate. Future research should seek to
identify the extent to which formal policy related to new teacher induction is supported by broader
elements of the organizational context.
Practical implications –In addition to implementing sound formal policies related to teacher
mentoring, school administrators should seek to foster a school climate that promotes administrator-
teacher and teacher-teacher collaboration to promote improved teacher mentoring.
Originality/value –This study builds upon previous research by drawing attention to the
association between broad measures of school-level administrative context related to the quality of
working conditions and teacher mentoring.
Keywords Mentoring, Organizational theory, Induction, Administration
Paper type Research paper
As states seek to improve the quality of their teaching workforce in the face of No Child
Left Behind and other national-level policies, several have mandated that all early
career teachers receive some form of induction into the teaching profession. By 2010,
over 30 states had guidelines for the provision of new teacher induction, with primary
goals of improving teacher effectiveness and decreasing teacher attrition ( Johnson
et al., 2010). Typically, induction supports are provided by schools to novice teachers
anywhere from the first year in the profession to the first three years, and induction
supports may include mentoring, professional development, and reduced teaching
responsibilities; teacher mentoring programs though have become the primary elem ent
of providing formal novice teacher induction (Goldrick et al., 2012; Ingersoll and Stro ng,
2011; Strong, 2009). Additionally, although the majority of teachers now have access to
new teacher induction, the depth and breadth of new teacher induction has been shown
to vary across and even within schools as a result of variation in state and local policy
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 53 No. 1, 2015
pp. 40-65
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-06-2013-0073
Received 29 June 2013
Revised 24 July 2013
2 December 2013
12 May 2014
27 May 2014
Accepted 27 May 2014
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
This work was supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (grant number B 8034); and
Michigan State University (grant number 05-IRGP-334).
40
JEA
53,1
as well as school context (Wayne et al., 2005). Given the variation in the depth and
breadth of new teacher induction, the benefits associated with such induction have
been found to be quite uneven (Ingersoll and Strong, 2011). This is particularl y
problematic given the significant resources that school districts invest in novice teacher
induction.
A great deal of this variation lies within the capacity and willingness of school-level
administrators to support novice teacher induction (Youngs, 2007b). This relates
not only to school administrators’implementation and oversight of novice teacher
induction policies, but also relates to their ability to cultivate a school-wide climate of
support for novice teachers to promote instructional growth (Blase and Blase, 2000;
Bryk and Schneider, 2002; Ebmeier, 2003; Spillane et al., 2001; Tschannen-Moran and
Hoy, 1998; Youngs, 2007b). School administrators and teachers must work together
to support novice teachers, and their ability to do so is in part a function of the
organizational context within the school. Specifically, the norms and expectations of
practice influence the behaviors of school members (Gilmer, 1966; Hallinger and
Leithwood, 1996; Hoy and Miskel, 2008; Litwin and Stringer, 1968; Tagiuri, 1968).
A critical aspect of the overall organizational context relates to the expectations
school-level administrators have for teachers’work and the extent to which they
support their teachers’work directly and indirectly. Administrators’beliefs, actions,
and policies shape the work environment and therefore impact specific teacher
outcomes (Ebmeier, 2003; Gilmer, 1966; Goldring and Rallis, 1993; Johnson and
Birkeland, 2003; Spillane, 2003).
Although there has been significant attention given to identifying the association
between administrator practices and teacher effectiveness and retention (e.g. Allensworth
et al., 2009; Boyd et al., 2011; Horng, 2009; Leithwood and Mascall, 2008), much less
attention has been given to the influence that school-level administrators have on novice
teacher induction. The study presented here buildsupon the limited body of research on
this relationship (e.g. Youngs, 2007b) by identifying the relationship between novices’
perceptions of elements of their work environment and the content and frequency of
interactions between novice teachers and their formally assigned mentors. Although
many elements of novice teacher induction are likely important in promoting novice
teacher growth, formal mentoring has been shown to be the most prevalent aspect
of induction (Ingersoll and Strong, 2011; Strong, 2009) and therefore is the focus of
this study.
It is expected that the routine beliefs and practices of a school’s administration
(i.e. principal and vice principal) influence the types of relationships that teachers have
with one another broadly and more specifically as it relates to formally assigned
relationships such as seen in mentoring programs. Therefore the specific contributi on
of this study is that it looks beyond the specifics of mentoring policy to incorporate
measures of the broader organizational context, which likely influences the quality of
novice-mentor interactions (Bryk and Schneider, 2002; Feiman-Nemser, 2010; Spillane
et al., 2001; Youngs and King, 2002). In other words, the extent to which novice teacher
mentoring is supported within a school is a function of school members’beliefs zand
practices beyond formal induction and relates to the intra-organizational processes
enacted in a school on a daily basis (Lounsbury and Ventresca, 2003; Powell and
Colyvas, 2008). As such, the focus of this study is on identifying the potential ways that
school administrators’beliefs and actions related to broader elements of teachers’work
are associated with the content and frequency of novice-mentor interactions. This
work is important because although important elements of effective novice teacher
41
Novice
teacher-
mentor
interactions
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