Mentoring strategy: Reflective dialogue

The mentoring process can help mentees to consolidate a habit of reflecting on practice[1]. One of the most powerful ways to do support reflective practice in a mentoring relationship is through dialogic reflection or reflective dialogue.

Reflection is a form of deliberate thinking about action with the aim of improving action[2]. Reflection that is ongoing, systematic, and critical is strongly identified as a crucial part of professional practice for teachers[3]. Reflection helps mentees develop their understandings about themselves as teachers, but also about how they learn, improve, and generate knowledge[4]. The aim of reflection in a mentoring relationship is to support mentees to take a step back from their practice and make sense of their experience[5] as a tool for their learning. The mentor’s role is to ask questions that enable mentees to bring past actions back into their consciousness and work out what insights this experience has for future action[6]. Dialogic discussion is not ordinary conversation or talk, but a deep articulation and justification of values, beliefs, and practices[7], induced by probing meanings and challenging a mentee’s interpretations of particular evidence[8]. It depends on constructive conversations and quality questioning which surfaces thinking and uncovers assumptions, responsive listening[9], and the exploration of perspectives[10]. It is a collaborative act that often means listening carefully with attention to weaving together the diverse ‘threads’ of understanding that each speaker brings to the dialogue[11].

Dialogic approaches align with the Māori concepts of ako in which learning is seen as a continuous, reciprocal process interwoven with teaching. The values upheld in the practice of ako are:

• whanaungatanga and the importance of relationships, relationship-building and maintenance, reciprocity, and connection[12].
• kotahitanga, and the value of collectivity and working towards a common goal.
• wairuatanga, for engaging with others in authentic ways that uphold self-esteem and mana.
• manaakitanga, in offering a spirit of care.
• kaitiakitanga, using culturally responsive practices to uphold important cultural values.
• rangatiratanga, for recognising people’s strengths and promoting leadership qualities[13].

Important aspects of a practice of dialogic reflection are using data, exploring perspectives, thinking critically, and maintaining a focus on relationship without sacrificing dialogue.

Using data

The use of data provides more rigour to the mentee’s self-reflection and self-evaluation[14], promoting critical inquiry and deeper dialogue[15]. Very often mentees can move quickly to solutions that are not well based in evidence[16], but reflect unexamined assumptions. The use of data and evidence can be really useful for helping mentors and mentees to challenge their existing assumptions and reconceptualise teaching and learning practices[17]. A wide range of evidence can be drawn upon, including qualitative forms (such as observation of the mentee, or observations of children, and assessments such as learning stories) and quantitative forms (counts of things such as number of turns in conversations with children, or time spent in particular activities). It is important to discourage reliance on anecdotal evidence[18].

Evidence does not provide answers. Instead, it is the quality of the conversation that is prompted by evidence that is of most value for learning[19]. This gives value to the knowledge you can co-create in your own context, which can often be more personal, meaningful, and relevant than knowledge developed through research[20].

Exploring perspectives

Having some sense of competing and alternative perspectives can help mentees to develop more sophisticated reflections on practice[21]. Conflicting views and tension between ideas can be valuable starting points for developing shared meanings[22]. Because of different social and cultural contexts and experiences, mentees and mentees may have different beliefs and viewpoints. Comparing different understandings of an event of practice can be a good way to surface assumptions and theories[23].

It can be helpful to identify a mentee’s habitual ways of thinking. You might use questioning to support them to develop other perspectives. Some common ways of understanding events that you might notice in your mentee are:

• Dualism – the use of dichotomies (either this or that, right or wrong, me or them, should or should not). Here mentors will want to support mentees to see a range of ‘grey areas’, and encourage flexibility in implementation and action, and the impact of that. Mentoring should definitely be focused on encouraging openness to different approaches.
• Multiplicity – believing that everyone is entitled to a different perspective and that what is true can be true for one person or one situation but not hold over other people or situations. Here mentors can help mentees to compare and contrast different perspectives, assess different perspectives and make connections between them.
• Relativism – similarly to multiplicity, recognising the value of diverse opinions, but comparing and contrasting them in order to analyse them relative to each other. Here mentors might add an extra dimension to their analysis, helping them to evaluate each perspective according to its context, developing more contextually-based analysis[24].

Critical thinking

It is important to help mentees move from surface level reflection to a deeper level of critical thinking[25]. Critical reflection involves understanding that knowledge is contextual, that values are cultural constructs, and that this means that change and improvement are possible[26]. Useful contexts to develop critical thinking are:

• Dilemmas and conflicts, that occur when expectations and reality don’t match up, and offer an opportunity for assessing the reason for the disjuncture[27]. 
• Consideration of context, andmaking critical and creative connections[28] between what we have experienced and social, cultural, and structural factors[29]. Mentees can reflect on what changing conditions of practice mean for their teaching[30], or you might challenge your mentees to relate their observations, data, and reflections to relevant theory and research[31].
• Assumption-checking, which involves teasing out the theories and assumptions that underpin thinking, and uncovering unconscious habits[32].
• Deconstructive analysis, which involves pulling apart individual aspects of a teaching and learning event, and reconstructing teaching (deciding what should be repeated, extended, or changed[33]), in a way that encourages evaluation and depth of thinking (in other words, not just describing teaching practice, but identifying which parts were most successful and why)[34].
• Emotional aspects which can raise mentees’ awareness about how they frame their thoughts, how they make meaning, and how they translate their ideas into action[35]. Attending to the mentee’s emotional experience as they reflect can help identify possible underlying factors for actions, behaviours, or situations[36].

Maintaining relationships without sacrificing dialogue

Dialogic reflection is supported by strong relationships, although some researchers note that paying too much attention to maintaining a positive relationship can limit the quality of the dialogue about needs and development[37]. For example, a focus on maintaining relationships can lead to mentors accepting the perspectives of their mentee as equally valid and equally valuable, limiting potential for probing meanings and challenging each other’s interpretations, ideas, and reasoning[38].

Dialogic reflection, done well, provokes significant cognitive (and sometimes emotional) challenge, and for this reason, timing and pace is important for allowing mentees enough time to integrate and reflect on new learning[39], and to feel supported, rather than rushed[40]. Reflection can be difficult for people if they are experiencing high levels of emotional or sensory stress or anxiety[41], and it is important to know and understand this. Aside from being responsive to any external stressors, difficult or uncomfortable reflection should be valued as a source of highly transformative learning[42].

Endnotes

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[1] Moloney, M., Pope, J., & Donellan, A. (2023). Professional mentoring for early childhood and primary school practice. Springer.

[2] McGuire, W., & Essex, J. (2022). Supporting sustained teacher development through reflection.  In Eady, S., Essex, J., Livingston, K., & McColl, M. (Eds.) Mentoring teachers in Scotland: A practical guide (pp. 72-84). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429356957-11

[3] Moloney et al. (2023).

[4] Moloney et al. (2023).

[5] Zachary, L. J. (2012). The mentor’s guide: Facilitating effective learning relationships. Jossey-Bass.

[6] Zachary (2012).

[7] Robertson, J. (2009). Coaching leadership learning through partnership, School Leadership and Management, 29 (1), 39-49. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632430802646388

[8] McGuire & Essex (2022).

[9] Mackie, L. (2022). Mentoring through dialogue. In Eady, S., Essex, J., Livingston, K., & McColl, M. (Eds.) Mentoring teachers in Scotland: A practical guide (pp. 72-84). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429356957-12

[10] Te Whāriki online

[11] Moloney et al. (2023).

[12] Polley (2023).

[13] McCosh & Clarke (2025).

[14] Moloney et al. (2023).

[15] Carroll-Lind et al (2016).

[16] Earl, L. M., & Timperley, H. (2008). Professional learning conversations: Challenges in using evidence for improvement. Springer.

[17] Earl & Timperley (2008).

[18] Eady, S. (2022). Giving feedback that feeds forward. In Eady, S., Essex, J., Livingston, K., & McColl, M. (Eds.) Mentoring teachers in Scotland: A practical guide (pp. 72-84). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429356957-14

[19] Earl & Timperley (2008).

[20] Earl & Timperley (2008).

[21] Eady (2022).

[22] Carroll-Lind, J., Smorti, S., Ord, K., & Robinson, L. (2016). Building pedagogical leadership knowledge in early childhood education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41 (4), 28-35.

[23] Moloney et al. (2023).

[24] Zachary (2012).

[25] Moloney et al. (2023).

[26] Zachary (2012).

[27] Nolan, A., & Molla, T. (2018). Teacher professional learning in early childhood education: insights from a mentoring program. Early Years, 38(3), 258-270. https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2016.1259212

[28] Nolan & Molla (2018).

[29] Moloney et al. (2023).

[30] Nolan & Molla (2018).

[31] Eady (2022).

[32] Nolan & Molla (2018).

[33] Molonery et al. (2023).

[34] Mackie (2023).

[35] Zachary (2012).

[36] Moloney et al. (2023).

[37] Mackie (2022).

[38] Earl & Timperley (2008).

[39] Carroll-Lind et al. (2016).

[40] Moloney et al. (2023).

[41] Moloney et al. (2023).

[42] Nolan & Molla (2018).