What informs mentors' practice when working with trainees and newly qualified teachers? An investigation into mentors' professional knowledge base

Abstract

For over a decade, school‐based mentoring has been employed as a key strategy in initial teacher training programmes. The diversity apparent in training settings as well as trainees' backgrounds raises questions in relation to the mentoring practice and the knowledge base that underpins it. By adopting a phenomenological, social constructivist approach the study aims to investigate mentors' perceptions of the relationship between their professional practice and the knowledge that informs it. It seeks to construct a typology of mentors' professional knowledge in relation to Shulman's (1987) model of teacher knowledge and the statutory standards framework for initial teacher training and induction in England, which serves as a point of reference for all those involved in the assessment of professional competence during initial training and induction. The findings of this study suggest that in their work with trainee teachers and newly qualified teachers the majority of mentors draw on their teacher knowledge without sufficiently taking into account the specific aspects of adult learners and the generic principles underpinning mentoring.

Acknowledgements

The project was supported by a small‐scale research grant from the Teacher Training Agency, which gave permission for this paper to be published. An earlier draft was presented at the British Educational Research Association Conference in Manchester, September 2004. We would like to acknowledge the contributions of our colleagues Rob Foster, Jean Groves, Greg Parker and Tim Rutter, without whom this project would not have been possible, and express our thanks to the mentors and mentees in our partnership institutions, who gave freely of their time to complete questionnaires and participate in interviews.