Chapter 7: Learning To Become A Mentor: A Study of Elementary School Teachers’ Professional Development

This article explores the reflections of experienced teachers on their roles as mentors in an online continuing education program (Online Mentoring Program [OMP]) designed for beginning elementary school teachers. It focused on the professional development of the experienced teachers (mentors), which included the examination of their reflections on the construction of the program and implementation process. It presented the main features of the program, the objectives, the theoretical and methodological foundations, and the analysis of the mentors' reflections expressed by means of narratives (journals and reports) during the program. The intertwined research questions were: (a) What contributions to the OMP do mentors in a research group offer in their professional development reflection processes?; (b) How do mentors appropriate the current knowledge in the area in order to have theoretical and methodological tools for their management of beginning teachers?; and (c) How do mentors make explicit their professional practical knowledge? The purpose of the present analysis is two-fold: (a) to examine the mentors' reflections on the construction of the program and implementation process, which were expressed by means of narratives (journals and reports); and (b) to describe the program's main features, objectives, theoreti-cal and methodological foundations. The mentors' professional development reflections revealed the construction of new knowledge through: a focus on problems of practice; an emphasis on mutual understanding and consensus; and democratic decision making and common action by way of articulated dialogues between researchers and mentors.