They Have Always Been There: Education Support Professionals as Informal Mentors to Adolescent Students
Open AccessMiddle and high schools across the country take on the challenging task of meeting the developmental and diverse needs of adolescent students. A growing area of interest in education policy has been focused on improving students’ experiences within schools and creating a feeling of connectedness to their schools. Studies show that students’ feelings of connectedness improve when they feel that school staff care about their educational success, their individual qualities, and their overall well-being. Education Support Professionals (ESP) (e.g., paraeducators, food service workers, transportation workers, etc.) have been reported as taking an active role caring for and supporting students in their schools, yet little is known about these informal mentoring relationships.The present study explored the experiences of ESP who reported informally mentoring adolescent students, seeking to understand the social dynamics and mediating factors ESP described as impacting their informal mentoring relationships. An ESP Activity Theory Model was used to help guide the design of data collection instruments and to analyze responses from interviews with a diverse group of seven ESP participants.Three key findings emerged from ESPs’ descriptions of their experiences informally mentoring adolescent students: 1) ESP described showing their mentees kindness, making them feel welcomed at school, building their confidence and independence, and supporting them with family issues. ESP also described how student mentees seek ESP out for support and show their appreciation; 2) ESP felt they were viewed as “lesser than” by teachers and school administrators, limiting their opportunities to act as a team with other school staff to help educate the whole child; and 3) ESP described their lack of inclusion in policy decisions and the policy-making process at the school and school district levels, as well as their lack of high-quality training, as factors that limited their opportunities to mentor adolescent students. Policy and research implications are provided, including recommendations for school leaders to take an “it takes a village” approach to educating the whole child, inviting ESP into the education process of students, and providing high-quality training to both ESP and teachers on best practices around supporting students.
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Fleischer_gwu_0075A_15626.pdf | 2022-03-06 | Open Access |
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