Chapter 6: Informal Mentoring Within An Online Community: The MathTwitterBlogosphere

The purpose of this study is to understand if and how all mathematics teachers may be supported through mentorship within an online learning community. With the adoption of new mathematics standards by a majority of states, many mathematics teachers may see a need for mentoring as they are now expected to implement teaching practices that differ from those associated with more traditional mathematics instruction. A qualitative analysis was undertaken of the blogs shared across the MathTwitterBlogosphere (MTBoS), an online community of mathematics educators primarily hosted within Twitter and the blogosphere. Mentoring was evident in 22 of the 46 (47.83%) collected blog posts. Inductively developed themes were further identified to describe how mentoring was provided within these blog posts. The findings provide qualitative evidence that engaging with the MTBoS is one possible avenue for which all mathematics educators may receive and/or request mentoring in teaching.In 2013, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) released a position statement regarding the importance of mentoring within mathematics education. The position statement reads, “States, provinces, school districts, colleges, universities, and experienced teachers share responsibility for the continuing professional support of other teachers at all stages of their careers (e.g., prospective and early-career teachers, alternative entrants, experienced practitioners learning new skills)” (NCTM, 2013, para. 1). Studies have primarily examined the mentoring of preservice or early career mathematics teachers. In contrast, the purpose of this study is to understand if and how all mathematics teachers may be supported through mentorship within an online learning community.