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Relational mentoring and teacher motivation in an english as a second language master’s program: a five-year study in the context of cohorts and professional learning communities

ABSTRACT To understand the role of mentoring more clearly as an incentive for teachers to complete a graduate degree, faculty members examined motivators for in-service teachers to complete a Master of Arts in Education (MA) program in English as a Second Language (ESL) at a public research university (RU) in the southeastern United States (U.S.). In this qualitative five-year study, we analyzed focus groups of in-service teachers from three public school districts in the southeastern United States who participated in cohorts on effective English learner instruction. Findings suggest that increased teacher completion rates relate to motivators associated with relational mentoring nested within the systemic support structure of cohorts and distinctive social network of professional learning communities (PLCs). Our study contributes to research literature by describing how relational mentoring, when nurtured through faculty as well as within cohorts and PLCs, supported teachers in completing an ESL master’s degree.