Abstract
Teacher retention rates persist as a major area of concern in American schools, compounded by issues like the lack of diversity in teaching and the struggle to recruit and retain a diverse workforce of teachers. Traditional models of mentoring have some success in teacher retention; however, mentoring is not equitably employed across schools. Additionally, it often follows an expert-to-novice framework, failing to consider the unique cultural and spiritual knowledges that inform a teacher’s professional decisions. To address the gap in the research, this qualitative study narrates the ways three beginning teachers engaged in a Freirean culture circle model of mentoring, aiming to resist a traditional top-down approach. The study hopes to answer the question, “To what extent does the culture circle model allow for new teachers to engage with and shape their Christian identities through their experiences as beginning teachers, their relationships, and their pedagogical practices?” A method of analysis, centering on the voices of participants, revealed the ways the group resisted the devaluing of their cultural and spiritual ways of knowing and instead engaged in transformative care through horizontal, or peer, mentoring. In the intersection of their Christian faith and cultures, the teachers enacted spiritual formation in transformative ways as they encountered the very real, and often traumatic, experiences of teaching in challenging environments. Through recentering participant voices in a culture circle, the teachers engaged their own faith through deepening understandings of sabbath, cultural wisdom, and exhortation, ultimately transforming and growing their professional knowledge through their faith.
Recommended Citation
Beitler, B. E.
(2024).
Co-creating a Culture Circle: A Horizontal Mentoring Model for New Teachers’ Spiritual Formation.
International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal, 19(2).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55221/1932-7846.1337