Chapter 41: Mentoring, Public Outreach, and Social Justice Issues: Ingredients for a Powerful Professional Partnership

Teacher candidates collaborated with the Dole Institute of Politics on the development of instructional materials for an online exhibit of the Americans with Disabilities Act that in-service teachers then field-tested.

We design professional learning experiences for our teacher candidates, which are dependent upon mentoring relationships and partnerships (see Figure 41.1) that better enable them to understand the importance of furthering student learning and of contributing to the larger profession. We place candidates in mentor- mentee relationships to empower them as professionals. Although we pursue this endeavor through a student-run organization, the Kansas University Council for the Social Studies (KUCSS), what the candidates have accomplished is feasible in a methods course.