A Creative Duet

Book excerpt: A Creative Duet: Mentoring Success for Emerging Music Educators offers new insights into music education mentoring. This book shows pre-service and early career music educators how to be proactive, innovative partners in the mentoring process. Author Jamila L. McWhirter gives expert guidance and practical tools to encourage emerging music educators to shape their own careers. Grounded in research and nearly three decades of experience as a music educator and music teacher educator, the book examines the collaborative and creative nature of the mentoring process and guides readers to the importance of informal, organic mentoring partnerships. Based upon an innovative approach, A Creative Duet is a book on how emerging music educators may gain the most from mentoring experiences while sharing and finding their own voice. Dr. McWhirter guides the reader through creative strategies, real-life examples and experiences, as well as introducing the thoughts and feelings of several emerging music educators concerning their mentoring experiences. She leads the reader through proactive preparation steps such as developing a personal mission statement, setting a course of action, examining the importance of establishing a time commitment to the mentoring relationship, as well as other aspects of self-exploration. A Creative Duet is an important book not only for the pre-service and early career music educator, but also for those involved in guiding future music educators.