to make the transition to becoming school-based teacher educators. Moving away
from a mentor training model is thefirst. The following features highlight the
components that were identified as important in the design of the Men/tee pilot.
- Community: A professional learning community approach enables participants
to learn from each other and to test ideas and strategies. It is recommended as
the best way to foster professional learning. - Context: Engaging mentors in professional learning about mentoring simulta-
neous to their mentoring work with pre-service teachers provides an immediate
context in which new ideas and strategies for mentoring can be applied and
subsequently reflected upon as part of the learning experience. - Collaboration: Ongoing, collegial collaboration between school-based and
university-based teacher educators is essential to enabling the development of a
shared vision for pre-service teachers’practicum learning. - Curriculum: Matching professional learning content with self-identified needs
and interests generates learner consent. A developmental curriculum that links
teacher education theory with the mentors’in-situ practicum experiences offers a
powerful combination. - Capacity: The provision of mentor and teacher educator education has the
potential to contribute to improving not only the quality of participants’men-
toring, but also their confidence and capacities as teachers.
19.7 Conclusion
The Men/tee project stemmed from many of the shifting and competing public and
political forces in ITE and consideration of the best ways to prepare future teachers.
The dual focus on participants becoming research-informed mentorsandthinking
of themselves as school-based teacher educators was a key feature of this mentor
professional learning program which enabled the development of a shared vision
for teacher education that cut across school and university boundaries. A limitation
of the study was the absence of data on the professional learning of pre-service
teachers and the implications for student learning within this partnership model.
This is an area for future research, building on the recent Donaldson ( 2011 ) review
which calls for“alternative models that help reduce‘unhelpful philosophical and
structural divides, [that] have led to sharp separations of function amongst teachers,
teacher educators and researchers”(p. 5). Our initial Men/teefindings do provide a
platform for future investigation and highlight that by (re)positioning mentors as
school-based teacher educators, together with university-based teacher educators,
the enactment of teacher education can be improved. We therefore encourage the
further development of school-university partnerships premised on educative
partnerships between university and school-based teacher educators.
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