Hidden labor in the mentoring of pre-service teachers: Notes from a mentor teacher advisory council

This article argues that mentoring reflects a form of hidden labor within pre-service teacher education. Using Marx’s concern for the ways in which aspects of an economic system are rendered invisible, the article draws on discussions from an American mentor teacher advisory council to illuminate otherwise marginalized aspects of mentors’ work. Meeting data reveal challenging dynamics of initiative, complications in determining teaching opportunities, and unique positions taken up by mentors during transitions in authority. The authors argue for the creation of “intersection contexts” where the voices of various constituencies in the mentoring of pre-service teachers can be heard.

Research highlights
► The lack of attention to mentoring in teacher education reflects Marx’s notion of hidden labor in economic systems.
► Mentors and pre-service interns report a “dance of initiative” in their professional relationship, with different perceptions of what initiative means, sometimes simultaneously waiting for the other to take action.
► During pre-student teaching internships, mentors and interns struggle to create opportunities for early practice teaching – such events take substantive communication amidst a mentors’ full time role in teaching and amidst the wavering needs of beginning pre-service teachers.
► Even skilled mentors struggle for clarity regarding their role in relation to feedback and about the kinds of feedback that are most useful to candidates prior to the student teaching term.
► Mentor teachers sometimes must create unique and intentional roles as transitions in authority occur within classrooms.
► Naming the realities of hidden labor as well as various mentor innovations in context can help build trust across institutions and cue teacher educators on how to engage mentor needs more realistically. In pre-service education, contexts for such conversation should be developed.