I am my brother's keeper—developing a satisfying mentoring relationship: A grounded theory

Abstract

The phenomenon examined by this study was the manner in which effective mentoring relationships form in the public schools. The purpose of the study was to discover a theory that explains how effective mentor-mentee relationships in public schools are built, as perceived by mentor-mentee pairs.

The initial research was conducted by interviewing each of the partners of seven mentoring pairs which were representative of all public-school grade levels in demographic areas that ranged from extremely rural to as urban as can be found in Idaho. Each of the mentoring partnerships was recommended as having developed a highly effective relationship by its district administration.

The data were collected by tape recording semi-structured interviews with each of the participants. Grounded-theory methodology as defined by Strauss and Corbin (1998) was used to analyze the data and to frame the theoretical position that emerged from that analysis. Then the emerging theory was checked and deepened by interviewing three more mentoring partnerships, this time without regard to their effectiveness as seen by their district administrations. Thus the emergent theory is firmly grounded in the human ecology from which the data were obtained.

The research reveals that effective mentoring relationships are the result of a symbiotic pairing of a willing novice teacher with a metamotivated mentor in an environment geared to satisfying the mentee's deficiency needs as they relate to the work place. Both the mentor and the mentee benefit from the association because at the same time that the novice teacher's needs for safety, belonging, and esteem in the workplace are being met by the mentor and the environment, the mentor's being-needs are being satisfied by the very act of lifting the mentee toward self-actualization in regard to her professional competence.

This theory, the Symbiosis Theory of Effective Mentoring, has direct and practical applications to appropriately selecting and compensating mentors and to supporting new teachers in their professional growth toward real and perceived competence in the classroom.