Session Information
01 SES 06 B, European Perspectives on Teacher Induction and Mentoring (Part 2)
Symposium continued from 01 SES 04 A
Contribution
This chapter is based on a case study of a customised mentoring programme for newly qualified teachers in Gibraltar, the main idea of which has been to hybridise action research with the peer group mentoring model adopted from Finland with the difference of only having beginning teachers and a facilitator as part of the group. The study aimed to investigate whether a programme based on these two approaches could better meet the needs of novice teachers. The study is based on an idea of practices as 'living things' which, like species in nature, are parts of a wider ecosystem, inhabiting their ecological niche. Accordingly, we suggest that practices can travel from one ecosystem to another and settle in a different environment if the surrounding conditions are favourable. Species can also interbreed, as in this case. The mentoring model developed in Gibraltar was based on the Finnish model of Peer Group Mentoring but the purpose was not to transfer the practice as such, but to adapt it to the specific ecological niche of the Gibraltar educational ecosystem. In this model, participants were guided to use the methods of participatory action research to identify areas in their own practice which might require attention. By combining these two approaches – peer group mentoring and action research - the study aimed to create collaborative spaces in which beginning teachers could identify areas of common concern and develop a critical understanding of their practice with a view to embedding reflective practice and self-directed professional development from the very start of their careers. The theoretical frameworks applied in this study are the theory of practice architectures and the theory of ecologies of practices (Kemmis 2022). Common to these theories is their emphasis on practices being rooted in the sites where practices happen. Transferring practices from one site to another is challenging, because practices are prefigured by the material-economic, cultural-discursive and social-political arrangements (practice architectures) which are special for each site. In terms of the theory of ecologies of practice, a species survives and flourishes in a new environment only if it finds an ecological niche that offers it favourable conditions. On the other hand, species can also change so that their characteristics adapt to the new environment. This induction programme offers insight into how changes to existing practices, and the deployment of these in a new environment, represent a kind of evolution of these practices.
References
Department for Education (2021). Early Career Framework. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/978358/Early-Career_Framework_April_2021.pdf Heikkinen, H., Jokinen, H. &. Tynjälä, P. (2012). Peer Group Mentoring for Teacher Development. Abingdon: Routledge. Lima, E. (2022). An Induction Programme Based on Peer Group Mentoring and Action Research for Newly Qualified Teachers in Gibraltar: A Case Study. Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Gibraltar. October 2022. Olsen, K.R., Bjerkholt, E.M. & Heikkinen, H.L.T. (2020). “New teachers in Nordic countries: Ecologies of mentoring and induction”, Cappellen Damm Pennanen, M., Heikkinen, H.L.T. & Tynjälä, P. (2018). Virtues of Mentors and Mentees in the Finnish Model of Teachers’ Peer-group Mentoring, Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 64(3), 355-371. Tynjälä, P., Pennanen, M., Markkanen, I. & Heikkinen, H. (2020). Finnish Model of Peer-Group Mentoring: Review of Research. Annals of New York Academy of Sciences (Special issue “Mentoring: Theoretical Background, Empirical Findings, and Practical Applications”), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14296
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