Student teachers’ reflections on the (de)construction of mentoring dialogues

Mentoring is important activity in teacher education. This article introduces how student teachers (N=142) reflect the flow of conversation during mentoring dialogues (MD). Analysis used a grounded theory method. The results indicate a substantive theory on mentors’ competency to manage MD in which the core element was the impact of MD on students’ feelings. At its best, MD was constructive and supported the student’s professional development. At worst the MD was deconstructive and ruined the students’ emerging professional identity. As a conclusion the mentor must be aware of the strong impact of MD to the student's professional development.