Session Information
01 SES 01 A, Research on Mentoring (Part 1)
Paper Session to be continued in 01 SES 02 B
Contribution
The supervision and guidance that student and beginning teachers receive from mentor teachers is a critical aspect of starting in the profession which, when done well, has been shown to lower teacher attrition rates (Geiger & Pivovarova, 2018), and positively impact teacher retention (Cobia, Stephens,& Shearer, 2015).
But how does taking on the role of mentor benefit mentors themselves in a professional capacity?
The purpose of this study is to investigate the knowledge, processes and conditions involved in mentorship practices that lead to professional growth for mentor teachers. We have developed and are in the process of testing a model of mentoring practices and outcomes around these specific research questions:
1.What mentoring competencies (tools) are critical in establishing reciprocal professionally developing mentor-mentee relationship in school practicum?
2.What are the mentorship practices (processes) that lead teachers to deconstructing their own teaching practices?
3.What are the factors (conditions) that support teachers ́ professional growth during mentoring?
4.What professional knowledge (outcomes) does the act of mentoring produce and to what extent does it contribute to teachers professional growth?
Engström’s (1999) “Activity theory” establishes the general basis for our study's conceptual framework within which the “Communities of Practice” perspective (Wenger, 1998) informs mentoring activities and situated learning that occurs in schools amongst groups of teachers. Finally we draw upon Trevethan and Sandretto’s (2017) research on the educative possibilities of mentoring to test our model.
Method
This research has used a quantitative survey design in order to identify the relationships between indicators of a variety of variables related to the mentoring context, activities, processes, and the professional knowledge developed as an outcome. A nationwide sample of mentor teachers has been included in the data collection in order to study mentor teacher practices at different teacher programs in higher education institutions in Sweden. Before designing the main questionnaire, an exploratory interview study was conducted. Six interviews with experienced mentors were undertaken, which informed the themes and items in the final questionnaire. A questionnaire has been developed with themes representing the mentoring components that form the conceptual model. In line with Engeström ́s (1999) activity theory, the questionnaire addresses the following elements of mentoring work: tools, rules, contexts/conditions, community and division of labour. Additionally, we have attempted to measure attitudes towards student mentoring, self-perceived benefits for students, obstacles to profiting from student mentoring, job satisfaction, perceived preparedness for mentoring role, self-efficacy beliefs related to mentoring students and perceived professional growth related to mentoring. We have at this point in time completed a preliminary interview study, piloted a survey, and distributed the questionnaire to mentors linked to all teacher education programs throughout Sweden. We anticipate to begin data analysis during February 2023. The survey data will be analysed through descriptive and inferential statistics with a particular emphasis on investigating the roles that different elements proposed by activity theory have in predicting mentor teacher professional growth. These factors will be grouped to distinguish determinants at institutional and individual levels.
Expected Outcomes
Preliminary findings from the exploratory interviews, and pilot phases of the survey show that mentors are generally positive to mentoring, and believe it is a professional responsibility to help others entering teaching. However, it is not clear to them how taking on the role helps their professional growth. This aligns with what Clarke and Mena (2020) show in their comparative study of mentoring motivations: mentors take on the role as they find the promise that it will be a way of “improving their own teaching practice...compelling but not excessively so” (p.12). We expect to have more findings to report in Glasgow.
References
Clarke, A., & Mena, J. (2020). An international comparative study of practicum mentors: Learning about ourselves by learning about others. Teaching and Teacher Education, 90, 103026. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103026 Cobia, D., Stephens, C., & Sherer, G. (2015). FOCUS: A state-wide initiative to select and retain transition teachers. Journal of the National Association for Alternative Certification, 10(2), 17-31. Engeström, Y. (1999). Activity theory and individual and social transformation. In Y. Engeström, R. Miettinen, & R. Punämaki (Eds.), Perspectives on activity theory. New York: Cambridge University Press. Geiger, T., & Pivovarova, M. (2018). The effects of working conditions on teacher retention. Teachers and Teaching, 24(6), 604-625. doi:10.1080/13540602.2018.1457524 Trevethan, H. & Sandretto, S. (2017). Repositioning mentoring as educative: Examining missed opportunities for professional learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 68, 127-133. Wenger, E. (1998). Learning in communities of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
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