Context Matters: Contextual Factors Informing Mentoring in Art Initial Teacher Education

Abstract

This article explores the contextual factors that shape mentoring practice in Art Initial Teacher Education. Based on in-depth interviews, nonparticipant observations and stimulated recall interviews with participants, we examine how various factors related to the context of mentors’ work influence their approaches to subject matter mentoring. Adopting a discursive stance to mentoring, we use critical discourse analysis to expose connections between mentors’ language, ideas, and beliefs and the broader context of subject matter mentoring. In each mentoring setting studied, the analysis surfaces distinctive contextual factors that are grounded in mentors’ interpretations of the roles and functions of their subject matter domains. We show how these factors inform mentors’ perceptions of the purposes and processes of mentoring and their enactments in practice. Our findings offer an extended perspective to subject matter mentoring and new directions for thinking about context in mentoring. Implications for mentor preparation and selection are discussed.

Leveraging the Power of Context in Disability Policy Development, Implementation, and Evaluation: Multiple Applications to Enhance Personal Outcomes

“…When context is not used as a frame, but instead used only to refer to a specific factor being studied by a researcher, it is likely that critical elements of context are overlooked (Becher & Orland-Barak, 2018; Schegloff, 1992). Specifically, researchers and practitioners may fail to recognize and evaluate the existence of the multiple factors, levels, and interactions that define context (Shogren et al, 2020).…”

“…Based on our most recent work, we have developed a multidimensional conceptual model of context (see Figure 1). This multidimensional model conceptualizes context as being multilevel, multifactorial, and interactive, and it operationalizes the complexity of context that is not widely done in contemporary uses of the term (Becher & Orland-Barak, 2018; Duranti & Goodwin, 1992; Shogren et al, 2014). These three properties of context, which can be understood through contextual analysis, are shown graphically in Figure 1 and described more fully in Table 2.…”

“…In applying a context-based change model to leverage the power of context, both organizations and systems must recognize the possible existence of multiple perspectives (e.g., the person with a disability, individuals who support them, policy makers) regarding context, and the potential conflicts that may arise among these different perspectives of context. For example, Becher and Orland-Barak (2018) found that some mentors of student teachers experienced significant tension between contextual factors related to their discipline’s subject matter context (i.e., art education) and the school in which they were attempting to provide mentorship, which limited their effectiveness and personal outcomes. Recognizing and addressing these multiple perspectives ensures that one aspect of context that happens to be included in research or policy initiates is not privileged over others (Schegloff, 1992).…”

Teaching on insecure foundations? Pre-service teachers in England’s perceptions of the wider curriculum subjects in primary schools

“…Fostering student adaptability is particularly relevant at a time when the revised Ofsted agenda (2019c) for schools and ITE in England provides for greater flexibility of approach and a renewed emphasis on the whole curriculum (Granziera et al, 2019). In addition to ITE student perceptions, studies recommend alignment between mentors' views of subject-specific SCK and PCK, and HEI visions for teacher education pedagogy (Becher & Orland-Barak, 2018). The potential for repositioning schools' and universities' perspectives through mutual engagement is thus an additional factor for consideration during this time of reform.…”

Power, School Culture, and Exclusion: The Socio-Academic Realities of Four Under-Credited Black Male Youth

“…Contextual field notes served as a way to revisit, recount, and closely examine the implicit and explicit happenings that occurred, particularly after the naturalistic exchanges I had with participants. Contextual field notes were used to highlight evidence that gave meaning to the attitudes, behaviors, and interpretations during focus groups, one-on-one dialogic follow-ups, and unstructured occurrences (Becher & Orland-Barak, 2017). In qualitative research, the researcher must be aware of their influence on the data; how data is collected; how data is interpreted; how data is manipulated; and how it will be illustrated for the reader.…”