“Jumping in”: trust and communication in mentoring student teachers

The purpose of this study was to uncover how two student teacher/mentor teacher pairs made sense of their roles during a year-long field placement. We learned about the ways in which the pairs discussed the idea of “jumping in” as they framed trust and communication as integral components of mentoring in learning to teach. Qualitative data sources informed our analysis of the ways people made sense of their roles in a mentoring relationship and provided participants’ perspectives on involvement in group conversations about mentoring. Implications include: (1) mentoring as “jumping in”; (2) conscious collaboration in learning to teach; and (3) mutual mentoring.