Particulars of Practice: A Collaborative Self-study of Mentoring Practicum-based Seminars

Abstract

This paper documents research regarding the roles, practices, and identities of three faculty members who mentor teacher candidates during practicums. Using a collaborative self-study (Hamilton, 1995), the authors examine the implications of implementing “particulars of practice seminars” (POPS) where practice issues are surfaced by candidates and examined collaboratively through focused conversation. The POPS are designed to develop candidates’ authority of experience (Munby & Russell, 1994) and foster candidates’ agency in professional learning yet these aims are highly dependent upon the faculty mentors’ practices and how these seminars are conceived and enacted. Using reflections, email threads, and meetings, this self-study focuses on the authors’ conceptions of their practice, identities, and roles as faculty mentors participating in the POPS and introduces “braiding” as a metaphor to illustrate the weaving together of multiple data sources. Results include assertions regarding programmatic recommendations, faculty development, and methodological approaches used in self-study research.