Breaking the Circle of One: Redefining Mentorship in the Lives and Writings of Educators(55 Counterpoints)

Breaking the Circle of One offers lively, personal accounts of graduate students' and professors' experiences of mentorship within universities and schools. This self-study writing group formed in an effort to provide and receive support. The circle of one the group signifies remained open to others and became integrated within multiple communities and represents the experience of isolation, competition, and abandonment faced by many in education. The chapters, diverse in their stories and points of view, redefine mentoring relationships and structures. Contributors engage their circular model of education as a framework for analysis. They also view their model as representative of a process throughout life that brings mentors and mentees close together at times, and further away at other times. This book is organized around four themes: the actual teaching of preservice student teachers; the use of innovative approaches to mentoring within established university systems; the interpersonal design of school-university partnership programs; and the search for new patterns of mentoring within teacher education.

About the Author :
The Contributors: Gwendolyn Webb-Johnson, April W. Kemp, Luana Zellner, Cindy K. Boettcher, Maggie D. Cox, Diane S. Adoue, Jane B. Hughey, John C. Stansell, Carol A. Mullen, William A. Kealy, and Donna L. Wiseman. The Editor: Carol A. Mullen is Assistant Professor of the Department of Educational Foundations and Policy Studies at Florida State University. Her teaching and research interests explore the topics of mentorship, diversity, and creativity within universities and prisons.

Review :
'Breaking the Circle of One' combines the shadows of mentors and mentoring with theoretical avenues of contemporary theories including cultural studies and critical pedagogy to provide 'light' for educators to follow pathways into the postmodern age. The ideas presented here will impact on traditional notions and practices of mentoring and support major rethinking of educational structures and policy making. The critiques are made without remorse but think with passion. (Kathleen Berry, University of New Brunswick) 'Breaking the Circle of One' ties critical pedagogy, autobiography, and mentorship into a revolutionary action. This action is instructive, emancipatory, and theoretical. (Peter McLaren, UCLA Graduate School of Education) This is a wonderful, inspiring book. It contains the accounts of the intellectual journeys of a group of teacher-educators (professors and doctoral students) who formed a 'culture circle' in the classic Freirian sense to reflect on their theory and their practice in mentoring and being mentored in teacher education. I read the whole book at one uninterrupted sitting. There are few academic books that are so riveting. The collection of individual and group testimonials breathe life into the concept of 'paradigm shift.' This book will inspire teacher-educators anywhere in the world to reflect on their lives and their practice as teachers, learners, and mentors. (Vandra L. Masemann, Ph.D., Secretary General, World Council of Comparative Education Societies) As one who has been active for years in an association dedicated to mentoring and for whom mentoring has been a guiding professional force, I looked forward with great anticipation to reading this book. I was not disappointed. Between the covers of this book are stories about mentors, mentoring, and being mentored. These stories tell of highly personal and unique experiences that are at the same time common to many of us in education. As I read, I smiled, I frowned, I reflected, I shed a few tears, and I felt inspired. In the opening chapter, Carol Mullen, senior editor, expresses the hope that presenting diverse perspectives on mentoring will help to 'transform forces of repression that operate within restrictive educational settings.' I am convinced that this book represents an important step toward achieving that goal. (Marcy P. Driscoll, Professor and Department Chair, Department of Educational Research, Florida State University)