New teachers are unprepared for school politics and the conflicts they experience with administrators, colleagues and policies. Research and practice on mentoring often ignore organizational contexts. This article explores these under-examined contexts, asking: (1) What do mentors need to know and be able to do in relation to school and district…

Uses micropolitical and organizational theory to examine teacher communities. Data from case studies of two urban middle schools show that when teachers enact collaborative reforms in the name of community, conflict often emerges. Results indicate that conflict is central to community, and how teachers manage conflict defines community borders and…