Exploring Pre-Service Teacher Mentoring Framework: Selected Cases of Kazakhstani Universities and Secondary schools
Author(s):
Lyazat Gapbassova (presenting / submitting)
Conference:
ECER 2017
Network:
10. Teacher Education Research
Format:
Paper

Session Information

10 SES 08 D, Partnership-Based Mentoring and Minority Teacher-training

Paper Session

Time:
2017-08-24
09:00-10:30
Room:
K5.07
Chair:
Jodi Roffey-Barentsen

Contribution

Although the process of learning educational theories form the bulk of teacher education programs, student teachers need to employ the existing conceptual knowledge during the practicum in real classrooms in order to construct their own teaching practical knowledge and form a teacher identity (Beck & Kosnik, 2002; Borko & Mayfield, 1995). Although the pedagogical practicum plays a significant role in the teacher preparation (Allen & Wright, 2014), its main efficiency hinges on a knowledgeable mentor (Hobson et al., 2009; Parker-Katz & Bay, 2008). Novice teachers' perceptions of teaching and the process of teacher identity forming are heavily influenced by the mentors, thus, the latter can be held accountable for the pre-service teachers' further evolvement as professionals (Graves, 2010). Thus, it is crucial for mentors to know how to mentor properly and how to build sustainable fruitful relationship with the mentee, in order the latter could advance their pedagogical development (Hudson, 2013). The purpose of the study is therefore to develop the existing theoretical knowledge about mentoring practices via exploring them within the universities with formal initial teacher education program and mainstream secondary schools. The obtained knowledge is expected to contribute to the overall existing theoretical knowledge of mentoring from the Kazakhstani perspective.

Research question:

  • How is pre-service teacher mentoring framework between universities and secondary schools in Kazakhstan understood and practiced?

Sub-questions:

  • What is mentoring and how are mentoring process and relationship conceptualized globally in formal initial teacher education? 
  • How is mentoring conceptualized (perceived) by mentors in Kazakhstani mainstream secondary schools and by student teachers and practicum advisors at the universities? Which mentoring practices are prevalent between mainstream secondary schools and the universities?
  • How these practices could be used for developing a mentoring framework within formal initial teacher education in Kazakhstani universities?

The sampling will entail three groups: mentors at schools (subject teachers), mentees (student teachers), and their practicum advisors at the universities (heads of the departments). Given that I will choose my participants according to the particular criteria, such as: having an experience of a mentoring culture (i.e., mentors at schools, who have mentored before for at least five years, student teachers, who have had a mentor during their pedagogical practicum in the mainstream school while studying at the university, and practicum advisors who have the experience in organizing and negotiating the practicum for at least one year), my sampling can be defined as purposeful. I want to involve 18 participants in total: six mentees (student teachers), six school mentors, and six university practicum advisors. This particular number of participants is expected to contribute to my study without saturating the data. As I will engage two university cases and two secondary school cases, I will interview three student teachers and three practicum advisors in each university case, and three school mentors in each school case accordingly. 

The study will be guided by the elements of the following conceptual frameworks:

  • Mertz's (2004) conceptual model of mentoring discerns between various roles and functions of the mentor, depending on two variables: intent and involvement. The framework is represented as a pyramid to suggest the hierarchy between the intent and involvement levels, starting from the base (modeling level) to the top (brokering level). 
  • Furlong and Maynard (1995) framework on four main stages of student teacher development (beginning teaching, supervised teaching, from teaching to learning, and autonomous teaching) and the role and functions of the mentor at each stage (role-model, coach, critical friend, co-inquirer).
  • Reflective practitioner framework developed by Schon (1987) indicates three main stages of knoweledge emergence: «Knowing-in-action», «reflection-in-action» and «reflection-on-action»

Method

As the focus of this study hinges on the understanding of mentoring process per se within different cases, I decided to employ a holistic multiple case study research design. In total, I will explore mentoring practices within formal initial teacher education program in-depth using four cases. Two of the cases will represent two universities in Kazakhstani two most urbanized cities that provide the formal initial teacher education program with the compulsory pedagogical practicum experience, and remaining two cases are their partnering mainstream secondary schools accordingly. These two universities in these two cities were chosen on purpose, as they represent the most diverse student teacher populations coming from different cities of Kazakhstan and are also considered to be the universities whose teacher education departments have been functioning for a considerable amount of time (since 1995-1996). Due to the fact that each university partners with a various types of schools (such as mainstream, elitist and those for gifted children), I will particularly choose among mainstream secondary schools as they represent the majority of all the secondary schools in Kazakhstan, and can provide more or less typical image of how the mentoring and pedagogical practicum process is tackled within Kazakhstani secondary institutions, comparing to other elitist schools or schools for gifted children, where the mentoring approaches are somewhat different and can be more unique. Another criterion is that these schools should have been working with the student teachers in general for at least five years, in order to have experience in ensuring and maintaining the mentoring culture. As regarding the choice of cases, it was mainly influenced by the main stakeholders of the mentoring practice, in particular, the student teachers, their mentors at schools, and their practicum advisors at their universities. Therefore, to explore the case of mentoring within the initial formal teacher education institution, I will mainly interview the student teachers who have undergone the pedagogical practicum in the partnering schools and their practicum advisors at university. To explore the case of mentoring from the mentors’ perspective in secondary schools, I will interview the mentors of those student teachers. This case study refers to instrumental category (Stake, 1995), as after exploring the case of mentoring process in Kazakhstani secondary schools and universities which offer formal initial teacher education, I will attempt to conceptualize the phenomenon of mentoring culture through the in-depth exploration and comparison within and between the cases.

Expected Outcomes

Given that mentoring procedure in general and mentoring functions in particular in Kazakhstani secondary schools and universities are not articulated explicitly in the existing documents, this study is assumed to illuminate the mentoring concepts which take place during the pedagogical practicum by using such instruments as: one-on-one interviews (with practicum advisors, student teachers, and mentors), focus groups and document analysis. This will not only help to obtain new knowledge about mentoring process, but also systematize it and bring the use of the best practices on a regular basis at schools and institutions with formal initial teacher education programs that provide pedagogical practicums (Data collection is in the process).

References

Allen, J. M., & Wright, S. E. (2014). Integrating theory and practice in the pre-service teacher education practicum. Teachers and Teaching, 20(2), 136-151. Beck, C., & Kosnik, C. (2002). Components of a good practicum placement: Student teacher perceptions. Teacher Education Quarterly, 29(2), 81-98. Borko, H., & Mayfield, V. (1995). The roles of the cooperating teacher and university supervisor in learning to teach. Teaching and Teacher Education, 11(5), 501-518. Furlong, J., & Maynard, T. (1995). Mentoring student teachers: The growth of professional knowledge. Psychology Press. Graves, S. (2010). Mentoring pre-service teachers: A case study. Australasian journal of early childhood, 35(4), 14. Hobson, A., Ashby, P., Malderez, A., & Tomlinson, P. (2009). Mentoring beginning teachers: What we know and what we don’t. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(1), 207–216. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2008.09.001 Hudson, P. (2013). Desirable Attributes and Practices for Mentees: Mentor Teachers' Expectations. European Journal of Educational Research, 2(3), 107-119. Korthagen, F. A. (2010). How teacher education can make a difference. Journal of Education for Teaching, 36(4), 407-423. Maynard, T. (2000). Learning to teach or learning to manage mentors? Experiences of school-based teacher training. Mentoring and Tutoring, 8(1), 17-30. Mertz, N. T. (2004). What’s a mentor, anyway?. Educational Administration Quarterly, 40(4), 541-560. Parker-Katz, M., & Bay, M. (2008). Conceptualizing mentor knowledge: Learning from the insiders. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(5), 1259–1269. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2007.05.006 Schon, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Iossey-Bass. Silova, I. (2005). Traveling policies: Hijacked in Central Asia. European Educational Research Journal, 4(1), 50–59. Retrieved from: www.wwwords.co.uk/pdf/ validate.asp?j=eerj&vol=4&issue=1&year=2005&article=5_Silova_EERJ_4_1_web Stake, R. E. (1995). The art of case study research. Sage. Yin, R. K. (2012). Applications of case study research (Third ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Yin, R. K. (2014). Case study research: Design and methods (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Author Information

Lyazat Gapbassova (presenting / submitting)
Nazarbayev University
Graduate School of Education
Astana

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