A multiple mentorship model for teacher residencies: grounding mentorship in antiracism and antiableism

University-based teacher education programs must forefront antiracism and antiableism as they seek to attract, prepare, and support diverse, justice-oriented educators for the nation’s K–12 schools. This conceptual essay outlines a multiple mentorship model within a teacher residency designed to support aspiring teachers of colour. Centring relational, community-based, and race-conscious mentorship, the model challenges traditional hierarchical and race-evasive approaches while helping residents navigate racialised and ableist barriers to become effective educators for underserved communities. University-based teacher education programs must forefront antiracism and antiableism, in both mission and action, as they seek to attract, prepare, and support diverse, justice-oriented educators for the nation’s K–12 schools. This conceptual essay outlines a multiple mentorship model within a teacher residency that is designed to support aspiring teachers of colour and others who come from backgrounds that have not been well represented historically in the teaching profession. Centring relational, community-based, antiableist, and race-conscious mentorship, the model challenges traditional hierarchical and race-evasive approaches while helping residents navigate racialised and ableist barriers to become effective educators for diverse students within systematically marginalized communities.