Abstract
This study describes how the contexts of mentoring shape the perspectives and practices of mentors in the Teacher Trainee Program in Los Angeles (California), an effort to recruit candidates to teach in inner city secondary schools by providing on-the-job training to college graduates, and in the Graduate Intern Program in Albuquerque (New Mexico), an effort to extend preservice preparation by offering structured support to beginning elementary teachers. Data were gathered by interviewing and observing mentors and mentees to determine the kinds of things mentor teachers do; the organizational, programmatic, and intellectual contexts in which they work; working conditions; selection procedures; and preparation. A comparative analysis related to broader claims about the power of mentoring to improve teaching is then presented. Three perspectives on mentoring are identified in relation to teacher induction: (1) casting mentors as local guides; (2) casting mentors as educational companions; and (3) viewing mentors as agents of cultural change. Research on what mentoring looks like in different contexts and what novices learn from their interactions with mentors can help policymakers and program planners understand the power and limits of this intervention in order to design more effective programs. (LL)