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Can mentoring and reflection cause change in teaching practice? A professional development journey of a Canadian teacher educator

This article explores elements of the professional development of a pre‐tenured teacher education professor. I am that professor and I trace my journey of growth, which was aided by peer mentoring. First, I present a brief discussion on literature associated with mentoring that I found pertinent, followed by how mentoring has emerged as I re‐designed a teacher education course to better meet the needs of pre‐service teachers. This course previously posed great difficulties for me in linking theory to practice. In this context, mentoring helped me improve my teaching practice through critical conversations with a mentor. It documents my struggles to improve my teaching at the university level. In narrating my journey I am not presenting a model of best practice but, rather, highlighting how mentoring allowed me to reflect on and improve my teaching practice.