Mentoring for well‐being in (un)caring institutions: Possibilities and limitations for language teacher education

Abstract This study explores how language teacher well‐being, as an ecological phenomenon that includes layered (un)caring practices, is shaped through institutional discourses and mentoring relationships across three distinct contexts. Using a participatory multiple case study design, we analyze narrative and textual data from three mentoring pairs in which we participated as language teacher educators: one with a veteran professor in Kazakhstan and two with U.S.‐based pre‐service teachers. Drawing on discourse analytical principles of framing, interdiscursivity, and rescaling, we show how institutional documents shaped teacher and teacher educator roles, and impacted well‐being as they navigated institutional expectations. Findings illustrate the parameters of our ability as teacher educators to support interdiscursive meaning‐making and rescale mentoring practices amid institutional constraints. Institutional framings both hinder and enable teacher well‐being, and mentoring relationships play a critical role in (re)negotiating these dynamics. We propose implications for mentoring practices that promote well‐being and contribute to institutional transformation.