Common challenges and benefits of peer mentoring for teacher candidate mentors and mentees are identified. The importance of embedding reflective practice in programs is discussed, with a focus on strategies for enhancing reflection and engagement.
The facilitators identified benefits for both mentees and mentors. Perceived benefits for mentors included the opportunity to make a difference, collaboration/connections, and skill development. Identified benefits for mentees included peer connections, broadened perspectives, clarification of expectations, system navigation, and the development of a professional lens.
Despite the observed benefits for mentees, mentors, and the program, experts identified numerous challenges in facilitating these programs. There were challenges for the university, the mentees, and the mentors. Challengers for higher education institutions included competing priorities and demands, as well as low investment in mentee-mentor relationships. Challenges for mentees included managing time and dealing with uncertain expectations. Challenges for mentors included difficulty getting mentees to buy into mentoring activities and time demands; mentees were disengaged or uncommunicative, and students lacked time and did not prioritize participation.
Several strategies for improving motivation and engagement were proposed, including designating time and space, promoting positive reviews of the program, making participation mandatory, providing academic incentives, providing resources, increasing coordinator involvement, incorporating reflective practice, and structuring reflective activities.
To overcome common challenges associated with low engagement from mentees, both mentor and mentee positions should be framed as equally active roles in a partnership essential for professional growth.
This study reveals areas for further research. Research on best practices for implementing peer-mentoring experiences for teacher candidates should be continued with larger sample sizes and mixed methodologies. Differences in best practices in online and in-person peer-mentoring programs for teacher candidates could be investigated. The value of mentoring as a reflective tool for professional growth should be further explored. The adequacy of structured and reflective peer mentoring as an adjunct or substitute for traditional mentoring by staff advisors may be of interest to provide more mutual professional growth opportunities to teacher candidates at earlier stages and at lower costs for institutions.