The expressed and the realized: Mentors' representations of a mentoring conversation and its realization in practice

The relationships that were identified from the iterative process of interpretation of the visual and the verbal 'texts' yielded a continuum ranging from 'closely related texts' to 'loosely related texts' between the visual and the verbal. The study revealed that relationship between 'the expressed' and 'the realized' in mentoring conversations is complex, multifaceted, and of a predominantly loosely related nature. In particular, we have learned the visual representations convey a more collaborative, democratic view of a mentoring conversation, whereas the actual conversations are more prescriptive and controlling. We discuss this finding in light of emergent tensions between two conflicting dominant narratives of mentoring (the developmental and the instrumental) that shape the context of in-service education in the Israeli educational system.