Reprint: Lost in Translation: Mentors Learning to Participate in Competing Discourses of Practice *

Abstract

Situated in the context of Israeli in-service education, this article explores the development of the author’s understanding of the process of learning to mentor from the acquisition of communicative competencies (as identified in an initial study), toward a more discursive view of the process as “participation in competing discourses of practice” (as identified in subsequent studies). Recent work has revealed the intricacies and complexities entailed in translating from one language (teaching) to another (mentoring), often positioning mentors as “lost in translation.” Specifically, studies shed light on issues of morality, expertise, context, and conditions for learning to mentor. To discuss the author’s evolving understandings, she attends to three interrelated themes: Mentoring as connected to teaching, mentoring as distinct from teaching, and conditions for learning to mentor. Finally, the author addresses the question, So what? to consolidate her emergent understandings of the metaphor, framed as assertions for thinking about the practice of mentoring.