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good about working with me to make sure that, like, it’s easier for me.” University
supervisors knew the interns’ needs, spoke to and listened to them, and provided
ongoing feedback.
Districts and schools provided supports through a mentor teacher. Although
the certification agency, the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, required
mentors for undergraduate teacher candidates, it did
not dictate a specific amount of time to be spent with
Districts and schools them (Georgia Professional Standards Commission,
provided supports through 2020). Previous research did not address the time the
mentor teacher should spend with the induction-phase
a mentor teacher. teacher either. However, Dr. Bullard indicated that, in
his model, he wanted interns to access their mentor for
50% of the school day. This period occurred with one
intern in this study, whereas the other two interns had
a mentor teacher for the entire school day. University
2 participants provided one negative example where interns shared their mentor
teacher with other traditional first-year teachers. Dr. Berry said, “She’s [mentor
teacher] now supporting all six of these people versus just our three.” This finding
raised the question: If a mentor’s time was shared with multiple interns and first-
year teachers, how much time did the mentor teacher spend working exclusively
with interns in this district? However, according to University 2 participants, the
interns acknowledged the new teachers also needed access to a mentor teacher. They
all worked together to meet the needs of the students in their grade level.
Supportive processes for induction programs included common planning times
and time with job-alike teachers (Garcia & Weiss, 2019; Reitman & Karge, 2019;
Sutcher et al., 2016). Each of the interns in this study had common planning times
with her mentor teachers and described instances of working with other teachers in
her grade level. Although two interns did not describe whether they had additional
duties like fully certified teachers, University 1 participants stated they asked the
school district not to require additional duties for interns and mentors to allow them
time to work together. University 2 participants stated, “The truth of the matter
is the [intern] really was more so treated like a first-year teacher” as the district
required the intern to have extra duties and responsibilities. Considering the intern
was still working on coursework and as a pre-induction teacher, this did not align
with best practices for new teachers where districts were encouraged to reduce extra
assignments (Garcia & Weiss, 2019; Georgia Department of Education, 2020a).

Factor 2: Mentoring Models
Variations of the mentor model occurred, diverging from the original model
proposed by Dr. Bullard. The only common finding was the presence of a mentor
teacher for each intern, aligning with previous research and presented as induction
support for new teachers. Interestingly, school district participants attempted to
provide interns with the model best for their system. However, the original intent
of Dr. Bullard’s model was to identify one vacant position, hire two interns, and
provide them with the support of one mentor teacher. The mentor teacher would
leave the classroom and be replaced by one of the two interns, allowing Dr. Bullard
to divide the salary of the vacant position between two interns and use one mentor to
support both (see Figure 1). Thus, two classrooms would have one intern each with
the support of a mentor for 50% of the day.

14 The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin: International Journal for Professional Educators