The structure of each professional learning session was essentially the same: we
began with a research-informed concept/strategy about mentoring or initial teacher
education; for example, the tacit nature of teacher expertise, explicit modeling, and
structured observation. We explored each concept collaboratively, including
through the provision of related research literature and resources that our mentors
might use with their pre-service teachers. The following week’s session began with
areflection on how the previous week’s ideas had influenced their mentoring
practices over the course of the week before moving on to the next idea.
19.5 The Men/Tee Study
Research data were collected from multiple sources to enable exploration of a range
of questions about becoming and being a mentor and school-based teacher edu-
cator, including a pre-survey in the form of Clarke et al. ( 2012 ) Mentor Profiling
Inventory, a post-program evaluation survey,field notes and recordings from each
of the professional development sessions and semi-structured interviews with 12 of
the 17 participants. Questions included, for example
- Which aspects of your recent mentoring experience were most rewarding? Most
challenging? - What changes (if any) did you make to your mentoring approach in response to
the ideas explored during our PD sessions? With what effect?
Two main themes emerged through the reading and analysis of the transcripts.
First, participants developed a new awareness of their roles and identities as
mentors, as school-based teacher educators, and as‘expert’teachers. Second was
their growing awareness of a‘pedagogy of teacher education’(Loughran 2006 ) and
how to do the work of mentoring, including the articulation of a range of tools and
strategies for undertaking that work.
19.5.1 Role and Identity Development
Those familiar with the research literature understand the significance of the
mentor’s role to pre-service teachers’practicum learning. But ourfindings revealed
that mentors themselves tend to undervalue the significance of the role. For
example, Linda described herrealisation of the importance and seriousness of the
mentor role, where previously she had thoughtit’s just a pre-service teacher, it’s
not a big deal...but it actually is a big deal.
Men/tee participants also began to understand more of the complexity of the
role, especially in relation to the emotional work of mentoring. For participants
19 Supporting Mentoring and Assessment in Practicum Settings... 289