Operationalizing the mentoring processes as perceived by teacher mentors

ABSTRACT

Mentoring plays a critical role in providing a quality professional experience for pre-service teachers in their initial teacher education. There have been numerous studies about pre-service teacher mentoring, yet actual mentoring practice still remains varied and poorly understood. Consequently, there is a need for mentoring processes that can enhance graduate teacher quality. In response to this call, this study aims to elucidate an understanding of how mentoring is operationalized, as perceived by the teacher mentor. Semi-structure interviews, with experienced teacher mentors, provided understanding on mentoring practices used within differing school contexts. These findings increase our understanding of actual mentoring processes that are used during the different phases of support for the preservice teachers. Understanding how the mentor–mentee relationship is operationalized has implications for supporting and enhancing quality mentoring experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Mentoring relationship
• professional experience
• mentoring phases
• mentoring processes

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the teacher mentors, the project research team from UNSW and The Association of Independent Schools for their contribution to this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hoa Thi Mai Nguyen

Dr Hoa Thi Mai Nguyen (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education, University of New South Wales, Australia and specialises in teacher education/development, mentoring, and sociocultural theory. She has experience training and mentoring pre-service and in-service teachers in Asia and Australia.