Emergency room stories: Mentors at the intersection between the moral and the pedagogical

This article explores how moral considerations guide mentors' pedagogical reasoning and behaviour in 'emergency room stories' (‘er’ stories), where the well-being of the mentee is at risk. Ten mentors of novice teachers in Israeli schools were interviewed about critical incidents in their mentoring experiences. The stories revealed that mentors' pedagogical reasoning was influenced, to a large extent, by a strong sense of moral obligation towards the well being of the mentee. Resorting to moral stances towards administrative, educational and professional matters as do experienced teachers, mentors acted as carers and as moral agents to their mentees in such urgent situations. In recounting these critical incidents, the mentors reported that they intervened prescriptively and authoritatively, often adopting a stance that was contrary to the agenda espoused by the mentoring project to which they were accountable. Just as teaching is viewed as fundamentally moral, the study highlighted the marked moral character of mentors' thoughts and actions, and emotional responses to perceived emergency situations.