Date

8-20-2026

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Advanced Educational Studies (PhD)

Chair

Shanna Nicole Baker

Keywords

New teachers, first-year teaching, mentorship, classroom instruction, curriculum development, teacher retention, self-efficacy

Disciplines

Education | Educational Leadership

Abstract

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand the experience of teacher mentorship programs for new teachers in a Title I public school setting. The theory guiding this study was Vygotsky’s (1978) theory on the sociocultural and zone of proximal development theories as they relate to how learning is a social process where individual skills and learning take place through social interaction. The central research questions were: How do new teachers describe their first years of teaching while being mentored? This was a transcendental phenomenological study as the focus will be on the lived experiences of elementary and middle school teachers with curriculum development and classroom instruction while being mentored. This research study was conducted at Wells County Elementary/Middle School in South Georgia with 10 number of teachers who have newly entered their careers in the past ten years. The data was collected using three methods: individual interviews, journal prompts, and focus group interviews. The data was analyzed using a modification of the Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen Methods as it is a systematic process that focuses the analysis to go back to the phenomenon of new teacher’s mentorship programs.

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