Date of Award

12-2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

School

Education

Committee Chair

Dr. David Lee

Committee Chair School

Education

Committee Member 2

Dr. Lilian Hill

Committee Member 2 School

Education

Committee Member 3

Dr. Kyna Shelley

Committee Member 3 School

Education

Committee Member 4

Dr. Thomas O'Brien

Committee Member 4 School

Education

Committee Member 5

Dr. Richard Mohn

Committee Member 5 School

Education

Abstract

The teaching profession relies heavily on mentor programs to promote teacher retention, to reduce attrition and to increase the quality of new teachers. Teachers grow professionally through gaining knowledge. Mentor teachers show professional growth through knowledge gained from mentoring programs and serving as mentor teachers.

There is a significant gap in mentoring research in that the mentoring literature is limited in perspective. Research focuses solely on the perspectives of the beginning teacher or the person being mentored, but the perspective of more than one stakeholder is needed to give the full picture of induction and mentoring. This study uses a mixed-methods research design to examine administrators’ and mentor teachers’ beliefs and attitudes towards mentoring programs. The researcher began the study with a self-created survey in order to gain quantitative data. That data was then used to conduct phone or zoom interviews for qualitative data. The researcher chose this research design in order to gain a deeper understanding of mentor programs and the effect they have on administrators and mentor teachers.

Teachers are not entering the field at a high rate, and from those that do, about 50% of them will leave before five years of service (Goering, 2013). The results of this study could provide valuable information to schools as they face the challenge of filling teacher positions and retaining the teachers they already have.

Based on the synthesis of the findings from the quantitative surveys and follow up qualitative interviews, it is noticeable that mentor training is a perceived weakness of mentoring programs along with time. Mentor teachers and administrators alike said they would volunteer for mentor programs in the future, even though they felt there might not be enough time or that they were not trained properly Overall, the analysis of mentor programs supports the evidence that mentor programs are beneficial to all parties involved and with a little extra training and time allotted to mentoring programs they can be even better.

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