Confronting a dismissive mentor teacher during student teaching

Interpersonal Leadership Situation: Conflict in a School Setting While I was a student-teacher at a high school, I was supervised by a mentor teacher who was often dismissive and patronizing towards me. Although I was supposed to not only observe her teaching, but also engage in instruction of students myself, she seldom gave me this opportunity. When I did, her feedback was uniformly negative. At first, this caused me to doubt my own abilities as a potential instructor. But in my previous teaching experiences before my placement, my feedback from students and observers was largely positive. I felt that the immediate feedback I received from students was much more positive than what she gave to me in private.
Of course, I realized that I was far from perfect as a new teacher, and my lesson planning and facilitating of class discussions still needed work. But her input was not really constructive, and did not give me much guidance in terms of how to improve my interactions with others. Gradually, I began to doubt her feedback, rather than to simply engage in self-criticism. I was afraid to approach her, though, fearing that she would be extremely hostile towards me. She could give me a poor performance review, which could affect my future. The experience had a negative effect upon my health, as I was constantly stifling my feelings about the student teaching experience. I had many sleepless nights, had trouble eating during the day at school, and was very defensive in terms of how I presented myself, given the fact I knew that the teacher viewed my performance as so poor.
Eventually, I decided to confront her, asking for information about what I was doing right, not simply what I was doing wrong. I said that I appreciated her experience and input, but I was getting discouraged about entering the teaching profession, given my experiences, rather than feeling more positive, as I had hoped. She was extremely negative at first, and criticized my generation for being unable to accept criticism. It emerged from her comments to me that she had very negative experiences (in her view) with previous student teachers, who she viewed as having a poor work ethic and getting into teaching for the wrong reasons. She was an older teacher, and seemed to be suffering from burnout. She opened up to me and said that she had been experiencing a great deal of stress at home. She felt that her experience in the school had not been appropriately acknowledged. Changes had been going on that gave her less direction over her classroom, and she had more administrative duties than she had in the past. Clearly, mentoring me was yet another duty she felt for which she was not being appropriately compensated.
As the result of the meeting, she said that I did have some strengths, including the ability to engage with the class, use effective eye contact, and she said I was trying hard. Although she did not admit that she had been too critical, given that I broached the topic, she seemed more inclined to give me at least some positive feedback, now that she had a chance to unburden herself of some of the things that were on her mind. Overall, although her review of me was not glowing, she did give me a satisfactory performance review. In retrospect, I believe that I did the right thing in asserting myself. I also think I did so in the right way. I was not confrontational, and I did not attack her personally, but made specific comments about the situation that I felt were unfair, and asked for something specific to be done in a concrete manner (i.e., for her to give me more positive feedback).
I doubt that the teacher made much in the way of sweeping positive changes, in terms of how she interacted with younger colleagues, but I believe I salvaged the situation for myself as best I could under the circumstances. If she had given me a poor performance review, or continued to be extremely negative, I may have needed to have taken my complaint to a higher level of authority and spoken to my supervisor. The incident highlighted to me the need to be assertive when you are being treated unjustly, even and perhaps especially if the other person is in a position of power to affect your future. Teachers, particularly young teachers without tenure, often find themselves between a proverbial rock and a hard place, given that they must report to a fellow teacher or supervisor with a great deal of authority in a very hierarchical organization. Teaching reviews are also very subjective. Few teachers, particularly young teachers are perfect, but that does not mean that everything they are doing is wrong.
The situation taught me to have confidence in myself, and to trust my gut—if I feel that a situation is unfair and I am being unfairly treated, there is a good chance that my suspicions may be correct, and I should not entirely doubt myself. I felt sad and frustrated at the time, and I still sometimes feel angry that teachers who are trying hard may not be fully appreciated. This is not simply true in situations where the teacher is being mentored, but also in interactions with parents and administrators. Younger teachers in particular struggle to gain respect and to win allies, given that they have not established years of success and a track record that validates their ability to solicit positive outcomes with students.
The one good thing which emerged from the incident is my willingness to set high standards for myself. I realize that as a new person within an organization I must constantly prove myself. I also realized that some people are biased against younger colleagues and are seeking to mark them down, rather than to give them the resources to build themselves up. In such situations, it is important to have a thick skin, a strong sense of self-esteem, and also to communicate what unfairness is transpiring in an objective and unemotional a manner as possible.