Supporting and sustaining new teachers in schools: The importance of professional culture and mentoring

This dissertation study examines new teachers' experiences in their schools and is framed around the concept of integrated professional culture, developed in prior qualitative work (Kardos et al., 2001). Integrated professional cultures, which were found to support new teachers in their work, offer frequent and reciprocal interaction among faculty members across experience levels; sheltered opportunities for new teachers to receive extra assistance as they learn to teach; and shared responsibility among teachers for the school and its students.;Organized as a set of three articles, this dissertation presents findings from a survey of a representative random sample of 486 new teachers in California, Florida, Massachusetts, and Michigan. It examines new teachers' experiences of support from the workplace culture, as well as from one formal structure: mentoring.;The data revealed that many new teachers today are not likely to experience the benefits of working in an integrated professional culture. Their work is solitary; they do not receive special assistance to help them learn on the job; and they do not share, with their colleagues, collective responsibility for the school and its students.;The research also revealed that, although large proportions of new teachers have official mentors, many do not have mentors who teach the same subjects or grade levels, and many rarely discuss with their mentors important topics such as classroom management, lesson planning, or classroom instruction. Furthermore, new teachers in low-income schools and new teachers who teach math, science or technology are less likely than their counterparts to be well-matched with their mentors or to have teaching-focused interactions with them.;Finally, these data revealed a strong and positive effect of integrated professional culture on new teacher job satisfaction. However, the mere presence of an official mentor was not related to new teachers' job satisfaction, even in the presence of an integrated professional culture.;These findings have serious implications for fostering the effectiveness and satisfaction of new teachers. In the current context of teacher turnover and attrition, this study helps us determine the policies and leadership practices that will attract, support, and retain quality new teachers in our nation's classrooms.