Session Information
01 SES 05.5 A, General Poster Session
General Poster Session
Contribution
International, as well as Danish, research, show that many newly qualified teachers is in risk of leaving the profession within the first 5 years of practice (Christensen, 2019; Ingersoll & Strong, 2011). This is a problem, as the lack of teachers has a huge impact on the quality of teaching in schools. It may also be a problem for the newly qualified teacher if they resign as a result of having lost faith in their own abilities. It is paramount that this problem is addressed on many levels, including research.
To assign the newly qualified teacher a mentor, could be a way to support them. But since mentoring is often a poorly defined practice, there are many different and arbitrary ways of doing mentoring, and there tends to be a general understanding, that if you are a good teacher you are also a good mentor (Frederiksen et al., 2017; Olsen et al., 2020). This results in mentoring of variable quality, often with sole focus on socialization and teaching tips, and with the risk of conservatism and judgementoring (European Commission, 2010; A. Hobson & Malderez, 2013). Both international and Danish research finds, that when the mentor is properly trained and their role is well described, the quality of the mentoring increases (Frederiksen et al., 2017; A. J. Hobson et al., 2009; Howe, 2006; Lejonberg & Føinum, 2018; Wang et al., 2008). Still, there is little research on training programs for mentors for newly qualified teachers (Aspfors & Fransson, 2015; Frederiksen & Halse, 2022).
Good quality mentoring should provide opportunities for the newly qualified teachers’ professional development through systematic reflection of their challenges in practice and develop new ways of action (Helleve, 2017). It is central to focus on the newly qualified teachers own understanding of what kind of a teacher they are aiming for, and support their ability to qualify their own professional judgement (Grimen & Molander, 2008; Smith & Ulvik, 2018). But still, there are few countries that offer systematic mentor education programs (Aspfors & Fransson, 2015).
In Denmark there is no formal education program focusing on mentoring newly qualified teachers. The only mentor program there is within teacher education and schools is a mentoring program for mentoring student teachers, and this is not a highly sought program. As such, there are few formally educated mentors at all in the Danish schools (Frederiksen & Bonde, 2020).
This small pilot study takes offset in the argument that mentors for newly qualified teachers needs training to be able to mentor with professional development in mind. The study seeks to show how the mentors understand their mentor role and their mentoring before and after attending a mentor education course. The findings on mentor’s understanding of their role and responsibilities are relevant when developing mentor courses, both in a Danish and international context, especially since there is a general lack of research on this topic.
Method
Research question: How do teachers understand their role as mentor for newly qualified teachers before and after the mentor course? If their understanding changes, how does this manifest itself? What findings can be derived from their potential change in understanding, that could be relevant to consider in developing mentor courses in the future? This is a qualitative empirical study with data from a mentor training course held in 2021 with 12 participants and in 2022 with 19 participants. The course is developed on the basis of current international research on mentor education for newly qualified teachers, along with our own literature study (Frederiksen & Halse, 2022). It lasted 2x2 days, approximately 6 weeks apart, during which the participants were given a mentoring assignment. The participants filled out two qualitative surveys each – one prior to and one at the end of the course. The survey questions were open ended, with indefinite room to write the answers. The surveys mainly inquired into the participants own understanding of their role and function as a mentor, thus the surveys were not used for assessment of the course, but rather a possibility for the participants to express what they deemed as relevant, interesting, dilemmatic, difficult, or not applicable, and why. There were 29 full sets of before and after surveys. The analysis is empirical-driven, with a inductive, horizontal open coding as the first step of the analysis, moving towards a thematic oriented coding (Braun & Clarke, 2013).
Expected Outcomes
The findings show that all participants had found it relevant to reflect upon and develop their understanding of the mentor role, the mentor’s responsibilities and the possibilities for conducting good mentoring at their local school, but also that there were several dilemmas and perspectives to consider. The preliminary themes are 1. mentor role vs. other roles 2. mentor competences (professional development, inquiry-based approach) 3. From a deficit to a resource understanding of the newly qualified teacher 4. Defining the mentor role at the local school 5. Findings pertaining to further development of mentor courses
References
Aspfors, J., & Fransson, G. (2015). Research on mentor education for mentors of newly qualified teachers: A qualitative meta-synthesis. Teaching and Teacher Education, 48, 75–86. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2013). Successful Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide for Beginners. SAGE. Christensen, P. B. (2019). Lærerkommissionens rapport. https://www.dlf.org/media/12970722/laererkommisionsrapporten.pdf European Commission. (2010). Developing coherent and system-wide induction programmes for beginning teachers - a handbook for policy makers. European Commission. Frederiksen, L. L., & Bonde, Å. (2020). The Lack of Induction Programs in Denmark. New Teachers in Nordic Countries - Ecologies of Mentoring and Induction, 2020, 71–85. Frederiksen, L. L., & Halse, E. (2022). Uddannelse til kompetente mentorer for nyuddannede lærere. Studier i Læreruddannelse Og -Profession, 7(2), 24. Frederiksen, L. L., Krøjgaard, F., & Paaske, K. A. (2017). Lærerstart og fodfæste i et livslangt karriereforløb. VIA University College. https://www.ucviden.dk/da/publications/lærerstart-og-fodfæste-i-et-livs-langt-karriereforløb Grimen, H., & Molander, A. (2008). Profesjon og skjønn. In A. Molander & L. I. Terum (Eds.), Profesjonsstudier (pp. 179–197). Universitetsforlaget. Helleve, I. (2017). Formally educated mentors in Norway. Nordisk Tidsskrift i Veiledningspedagogikk, 2(1), 30–44. Hobson, A. J., Ashby, P., Malderez, A., & Tomlinson, P. D. (2009). Mentoring beginning teachers: What we know and what we don’t. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(1), 207–216. Hobson, A., & Malderez, A. (2013). Judgementoring and other threats to realizing the potential of school‐based mentoring in teacher education. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 2, 89–108. Howe, E. R. (2006). Exemplary Teacher Induction: An international review. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 38(3), 287–297. Ingersoll, R. M., & Strong, M. (2011). The Impact of Induction and Mentoring Programs for Beginning Teachers: A Critical Review of the Research. Review of Educational Research, 81(2), 201–233. Lejonberg, E., & Føinum, M. (2018). Hva er god veiledning? : en forskningsbasert innføringsbok om veiledning av nye lærere (1. udgave). Fagbokforlaget. Olsen, K.-R., Bjerkholt, E. M., & Heikkinen, H. L. T. (2020). Introduction: Mentoring and Induction in the Nordic Countries. In K.-R. Olsen, E. M. Bjerkholt, & H. L. T. Heikkinen (Eds.), New Teachers in Nordic Countries – Ecologies of Mentoring and Induction (pp. 11–27). Smith, K., & Ulvik, M. (2018). Veiledning av nye lærere: nasjonale og internasjonale perspektiver (2. utg.). Universitetsforlaget. Wang, J., Odell, S. J., & Schwille, S. A. (2008). Effects of Teacher Induction on Beginning Teachers’ Teaching: A Critical Review of the Literature. Journal of Teacher Education, 59(2), 132–152.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.