Frustration as an Asset in Professional Mentoring Programs: STEM Mentors’ Reframing of Frustration into Productive Inquiry

Research Experiences for Teachers (RETs) programs offer K–12 teachers immersive opportunities to engage in STEM research, with mentors playing a central role in shaping professional learning. While cognitive and instructional dimensions of mentorship are well documented, the emotional labor of mentoring, particularly around experiences of frustration, remains underexamined. Therefore, this study investigates how STEM mentors experience, conceptualize, and respond to frustration when mentoring teachers during an RET program. Framed by situated learning theory and Attribution Theory of Motivation and Emotion, we conducted and analyzed semi-structured interviews with five faculty mentors participating in a seven-week RET program. Findings reveal that frustration arises from disciplinary complexity, perceived gaps in mentee preparedness, and external and internal constrictions including institutional constraints, resource limitations, and relational friction. Yet frustration was frequently reinterpreted by mentors as a normal, necessary, and productive component for disciplinary work and teacher learning, rather than a symptom of failure. In light of these findings, we discuss the implications and contributions of this work by theorizing frustration-related emotional labor as a legitimate component of the mentoring process rather than a liability and discuss programmatic considerations for more supportive, reflective, and emotionally sustainable professional development partnerships between mentors and K-12 educators.