Critical thinking, caring and professional agency: an emerging framework for productive mentoring

In this paper, we reported on one mentoring programme in the Republic of Ireland which provides an accreditation pathway to a masterâ s level qualification. The paper serves three purposes. First, informed by selected literature on education, teacher education and mentoring we caution against expedient reductionist models that are based solely on rigid novice-expert mentoring relationships with limited facility for critical co-inquiry or sustained networks for professional knowledge generation (Maynard & Furlong, 1995; Wang & Odell, 2007). Second, we present an evolving theoretical framework for mentoring, productive mentoring, based on our critique of a preferred academic literature, ongoing reflective and reflexive dialogue, the context of our study and observations from interactions with mentor teachers, school principals and teacher educators over a four-year period (Bernstein, 1990, 2000; Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005; Lingard, Hayes, Mills & Christie, 2003; Noddings, 2003, 2007). We proactively encourage dialogue which promotes an awareness of societal norms and traditions that can appear as counterculture to critical thinking and professional agency. Lastly, drawing on these findings we present our espoused values as four principles and consider implications for productive mentoring as an academic, caring and professional practice that is contextually responsive within a continuum of teacher education in a rapidly changing society.