Mentoring for well-being in (un)caring institutions: Possibilities and limitations for language teacher education

Abstract

This study explores how language teacher well-being, as an ecological phenomenon that includes layered (un)caring practices, is shaped through institutional discourses and mentoring relationships across three distinct contexts. Using a participatory multiple case study design, we analyze narrative and textual data from three mentoring pairs in which we participated as language teacher educators: one with a veteran professor in Kazakhstan and two with U.S.-based pre-service teachers. Drawing on discourse analytical principles of framing, interdiscursivity, and rescaling, we show how institutional documents shaped teacher and teacher educator roles, and impacted well-being as they navigated institutional expectations. Findings illustrate the parameters of our ability as teacher educators to support interdiscursive meaning-making and rescale mentoring practices amid institutional constraints. Institutional framings both hinder and enable teacher well-being, and mentoring relationships play a critical role in (re)negotiating these dynamics. We propose implications for mentoring practices that promote well-being and contribute to institutional transformation. © 2026 The Author(s). The Modern Language Journal published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations, Inc.