This paper explores how mentor teachers construct and perform their professional identities in Irish schools with a particular focus on what constrains and/or supports them to use reflective practices and discourses in their day to day lives as teachers. The study will focus on a select group of mentors who have participated in a six-day national pilot project for teacher induction. The project focuses on three key questions: (1) How do mentors construct their professional identity and what influences this construction? (2) What impact has mentoring of new teachers on this professional identity? (3) What professional activities have meaningfully engaged them over their professional lives and how has this impacted on their view of themselves as professionals. A baseline assumption for the genesis of this research project is that meaningful professional learning that leads to changes in teacher thinking, attitudes, dispositions and commitment to new practices requires reflective practices and discourses on an ongoing basis in schools (Day, 2002; Guskey, 2000; Hargreaves, 2000; Hoban 2002; Schon, 1983). In addition, we argue that dominant models of professional development leave little room for teacher meaning-making and meaningful participation, an issue that is particularly relevant in recent evaluations of Irish professional development programmes (Leonard and Gleeson, 1999; Granville 2005; McNamara & O’Hara, 2006; Sugrue, 2004). Despite major investment in education and change in curricula there has been a pervasive lack of change in the conceptualization of the teacher as learner (Leonard & Gleeson, 1999; Kellaghan, 2000;Sugrue, 2002). In the same way there has been a lack of engagement with developing the kinds of professional learning environments that support reflective, engaged teachers espoused and assumed in policy and curriculum documents (Hogan et al, 2007, Leonard & Gleeson, 1999, Mooney Simmie, 2007; Rath, 2002, Sugrue, 2002). Sugrue (2002) has identified the lack of coherence and fragmentation in professional learning opportunities and a lack of differentiation that is sensitive to context, need, and career trajectory of teachers. His research on the usefulness of in-service provision generally suggests that pedagogical issues are often not engaged with to any great degree. This exploratory study takes up these issues with a particular focus on how participation in a mentoring training programme and shift in role to teacher mentor impact on the professional identities of mentors. The study uses the ) to frame the study and as the theoretical lens to analyses the findings.

This study will use a mixed methods approach which will generate quantitative and qualitative data. Initially, a teacher survey will be used to map the professional domain with a cohort of 50 mentor teachers in two education centres. In addition, focus group interviews with two select 6 member groups for an in-depth investigation of the pivotal factors involved in the construction of a professional identity as well as generating qualitative data on mentors’ perspective on the mentoring relationship, their CPD experiences generally and their experiences in the mentoring programme.

This study will map how mentor teachers negotiate the discourses and practices of teaching and learning. It will investigate the stance mentor teachers take in relation to their mentoring role therefore providing rich data on what they consider important in professional practice. This data will then be related to national programmes and policies on teacher development and comes at a time when Ireland’s Teaching Council is beginning to define professional competencies and practice and is therefore relevant and potentially useful. It is expected that this research will be published as a journal article.