Fostering Music Teacher Identity Development through Mentoring Dialogues

In a prior investigation I focused on the cooperating teacher’s perspective during mentoring dialogues, reflecting on their role as a mentor (Munroe, 2021). Other researchers have focused on what the student teacher learns from the conversation, but not specifically on teacher identity development (Fernandez & Erbilgin, 2009; Tsui et al., 2001). In this study I recorded mentoring dialogues between three pairs of student teachers and cooperating teachers. Using stimulated recall interviews (Ericsson & Simon, 1999), I asked the student teachers to reflect on their perceptions of the cooperating teacher’s mentoring role and their teacher identity. I determined cooperating teachers’ mentoring roles using the Mentoring Roles in Dialogues (MERID) Model (Hennissen et al., 2008) and analyzed the data using Beijaard and Meijer’s (2017) concepts related to teacher identity development: sense-making, agency, and ownership. Findings indicated that cooperating teachers have a great influence on identity development through formal dialogues. Student teachers reflected on feelings of success, identity tensions, and struggles throughout their student teaching experience.