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Purpose Within teacher education, many experienced in-service teachers routinely mentor pre-service teachers during teaching practicums. Notwithstanding the benefits pre-service teachers are meant to experience from these mentor–protégé relationships and experiences, recent research has demonstrated that mentors, too, may experience some (oftentimes unintended) potential benefits. The purpose of this paper is to further investigate such potential benefits within a Canadian secondary school physical education (PE) context. Design/methodology/approach The researchers employed a qualitative case study methodology. The three primary data sources included field observations/notes, journals and interviews. More specifically, over a ten-week period, the researchers made 26 field visits, observing two mentors’ interactions with five protégés before, during, and after PE class instruction; collected the two mentors’ ten journal entries, all made in response to researcher-provided writing prompts; and interviewed the two mentors, both individually and together. Findings The mentor teachers viewed the mentor–protégé relationship/experience as meaningful professional development, recognizing that it approximated a professional learning community. Relatedly, the mentor teachers experienced professional growth with respect to their own teaching identity and teaching practice. Research limitations/implications This research could inform those who structure and/or coordinate mentoring research within teacher education programs so that they might place a more purposeful focus upon the potential and/or idealized outcomes for mentors (as well as for protégés). Given the single case study methodology, this research may lack generalizability to other educational contexts. Originality/value This research adds to the emerging body of research that investigates how mentoring may provide benefits to mentors. More specifically, this research suggests benefits to mentors relate, especially, to their own teaching identity and practice.

IntroductionAlthough school communities may be required to provide physical education opportunities for all students—including for those with disabilities—the same is not generally true with respect to school sport (i.e., participation in interscholastic or intramural sport programs). Hence, opportunities for inclusive school sport participation are consequently limited. Recognizing the need for continued attention and action in this area, we recently developed and piloted Game Changers—a participatory action research project. Together, 27 students with various cognitive and/or intellectual disabilities (i.e., student-participants), their schools’ six physical education teachers and learning support teachers (i.e., champion-participants), four university researchers (i.e., researcher-participants), and two community partners [i.e., Physical and Health Education (PHE) Canada, Special Olympics Nova Scotia] engaged in the Game Changers project with three idealized goals: (a) to bring to the fore para/adapted/inclusive sport opportunities for all students; (b) to provide an empowering opportunity for students with disabilities to participate, make choices, and act as leaders in the development of sport programming; and (c) to engage youth with disabilities in sport as participants, leaders, mentors, and role models.MethodsUtilizing a mixed-methods design, data were collected from a variety of sources before the implementation of the Game Changers program, during its implementation, and once it was complete. These four data sources included the following: pre- and post-program survey for student-participants, pre- and post-program focus group interviews for student-participants, pre- and post-program focus group interviews for champion-participants, and school/sport observations.ResultsThe first cycle of this participatory action research project has yielded positive and informative findings. Strictly positive findings, among others, relate to the following: improving upon students' perceived competence and autonomy, inviting student voice, identifying and responding to sport participation barriers, and creating genuine sport opportunities within school settings. More undesirable yet informative findings, among others, relate to the following: unachieved intrinsic motivation and belonging, (un)sustainability of sport programs without “interventions” like Game Changers, recreation/leisure as “substitutes” for sport, and a continued want for authentic leadership and mentorship opportunities.DiscussionWith these findings, we offer insights for future iterations of Game Changers (and programs like it) in similar school communities.

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