There is ever-growing concern in the education community over increasing teacher attrition rates. Many have argued mentoring is one answer to that concern, at both the pre-service teacher and induction levels. However, researchers have given little attention to a key component of mentoring: retaining the mentors themselves. Compensation may be a key factor in mentor retention; unfortunately, similar to teacher compensation, mentor compensation (e.g., monetary pay, professional development, university tuition waivers) has decreased, even as the duties of being a mentor have increased. Due to the crucial role mentors play in teacher retention, mentor turnover may be as detrimental to pre-service and beginning teachers as teacher turnover is to PK-12 students, indicating the importance of increasing research on mentor retention. In this dissertation, I explore experiences of pre-service teacher mentor retention from the perspective of two high school English mentor teachers and their student-teaching interns. Using narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) as both methodology and form, I tell the story of these mentors' early experiences with mentoring, experiences with mentoring interns at the time of the study, and potential future experiences with mentoring. Based on interviews with the mentors and their current interns, professional development with the mentors, and observing the mentors and interns working together, I determined these mentors' personal expectations for mentoring. Some of these expectations include a desire to: learn from mentoring, feel less isolated in teaching, and mentor their interns through professional crises, among others. I also relate the mentors' reasons for continuing to mentor and the ways they have felt supported in their own words. Ultimately, I argue that mentors enter the mentoring relationship with expectations, and if their expectations are not met over time, they will not continue mentoring.
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