Mentoring for Wellbeing in Schools: An Interdisciplinary Perspective(Perspectives on Mentoring)

This volume of the Perspectives on Mentoring Series explores the role of mentoring in promoting wellbeing of both mentees or proteges and mentors in K-12 school settings. At its core, mentoring is about helping, advising, supporting, and guiding mentees and proteges to gain a wide variety of skills, abilities, and/or attributes. Another outcome of mentoring, less often discussed, is the positive impact it can have on the mental health and wellbeing of both the mentor and mentee. Of particular interest for this edited volume is how mentoring can promote mental health, build resilience, and develop capacity to maintain and sustain emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing for all in the K-12 school settings. The notion of wellbeing, in general, includes both hedonic aspects of feeling good (positive emotions) and eudemonic (conducive to happiness) aspects of living well that entail experiences of positive relationships, meaningfulness in life and work, senses of mastery and personal growth, autonomy, and achievement. This edited volume expands and adds to the existing literature on mentoring in schools, by offering a collection of works that examine the connection between mentorship and wellbeing. This volume includes chapters that describe effective mentoring for wellbeing, detail positive approaches to mentoring youth, offer recommendations for growing the wellbeing of pre-service teachers, early career teachers, and mid-late career teachers, illustrate approaches to growing a community of educators through mentoring and developing teacher leaders as agents of change and facilitators of wellbeing, and discuss studies and models for nurturing and promoting wellbeing among and through school leaders in national and international settings. Through these chapters, authors advocate for greater attention to how to support and nurture wellbeing as central to mentorship efforts in K-12 school settings.

Table of Contents:
Foreword; Linda Searby. Introduction: Mentoring as a Facilitator of Wellbeing in Schools; Benjamin Kutsyuruba. Chapter 1. Effective Mentoring for Affirming Mentees' Personhood; HeeKap Lee. Chapter 2. Examining Purpose to Strengthen Mentoring's Impact on At-Promise Youth; Laura Garrison-Brook. Chapter 3. Changing the Face of Teacher Preparation: A Collective Mentorship Practice; Imandeep Grewal, Amanda Maher, Sara Muchmore, and Johnnetta Ricks. Chapter 4. Mentoring and Its Impact on the Wellbeing of Preservice Teachers and Their Mentors; Seema Rivera. Chapter 5. The Role of Mentoring in Early and Mid-Late Career Teacher Wellbeing; Benjamin Kutsyuruba, Brooke Parker, and Haley Clark. Chapter 6. Mindful Mentoring in Action: Shining a Spotlight on Teacher Wellbeing; Carol Pelletier Radford. Chapter 7. Mentoring Novice Teachers: Providing a Context Specific Focus for the Individual Teacher; Lauren May. Chapter 8. Increasing Wellbeing and Resilience in New Teachers Through University-Based Mentoring; Sara Hoeve and Susan Brondyk. Chapter 9. Mentoring Resilient Special Education Teachers: A Framework for a Supportive Mentoring Model; Tara Mason. Chapter 10. Creating a Supportive Virtual Mentorship Community for Educators Through The Mentoree; Teri Rubinoff, Noa Daniel, and Christine Chin. Chapter 11. Induction Mentors: Teacher Leaders as Agents of Change and Facilitators of Wellbeing; Suzanne Molitor. Chapter 12. A Conceptual Model of School Principal Mentoring: Nurturing Wellness (and Wellbeing) Within a Continuum of School Leadership Preparation; Tyrone Bynoe. Chapter 13. Informal Mentoring: An Innovative Practice for Promoting Principal Wellbeing; Rhonda T. Wheeler, Ellen H. Reames, and Angela C. Adair. Chapter 14. The Kith and Kin of Professional Networks in International Schools: Prioritizing Wellbeing in Mentoring Practices; Rebecca Stroud and Michelle Massey. Chapter 15. Reflections on Fostering Wellbeing in Schools; Frances Kochan.About the Editors. About the Contributors.

Review :
Mentoring for Wellbeing in Schools shines light on wellbeing in studies of mentoring in K–12 education. This collection provides researchers, practitioners, and policymakers alike with a rich array of wellbeing in mentoring relationships—not as an add-on feature of mentorship but rather an essential aspect of mentors' support and role. As demonstrated from various perspectives, a culture of wellbeing in schools has multiple benefits for people and organizational cultures, including teacher and leader preparation. Readers, especially those concerned with the flourishing of schools in a pandemic world, will walk away better prepared to make mentoring work."" — Carol A. Mullen, Virginia Tech ""Effectively marshalled by Kutsyuruba and Kochan, respected international authorities on mentoring, the authors provide a wealth of examples and guidance on much-needed means of promoting wellbeing and human flourishing in schools. Given the vast number of threats and impediments to the wellbeing of students, trainee teachers, established teachers, and principals worldwide, this work is extremely timely. Arguably, it should be compulsory reading for school principals, mentors, teacher educators, mentor trainers, education researchers in these spaces, and – perhaps more importantly – anyone who holds public office and makes or has the capacity to influence decisions which impact the work of school teachers and principals."" — Andrew J. Hobson, University of Brighton, UK