117date. The concerns of his mentor teacher had not gone unnoticed, but he was con-
fused about why he felt he was ‘unsuitable’ for primary school teaching.
In the meeting, it became clear that at the heart of the matter was the mentor
teacher’s concern that Sebastian demonstrates his ability to scope and sequence a
lesson or series of lessons appropriate for his Grade 4 class and, more generally, to
communicate with them ‘at their level’. In contrast, Sebastian talked mostly of his
love of science and learning and his keenness to ‘reproduce’ what he felt were some
of his own most inspiring experiences as a student. It was difficult to get Sebastian
to pay close attention to what his mentor teacher was saying about the need to ‘reca-
librate’ pedagogical designs. He would close down and display feelings of being
hurt, despairing and defeated. The placement progressed but required regular medi-
ation from the university-based teacher educator, not to deflect a defensive or dete-
riorating relationship but rather to scaffold the focus of both mentor and mentee on
the renegotiation of Sebastian’s existing view of self as teacher and its interrelation-
ship with Sebastian’s practice as a teacher within that setting. Sebastian was suc-
cessful in passing his placement. However his mentor teacher felt his impact on
Sebastian’s progress was minimal; and Sebastian himself reflects on the placement
as a ‘personally and professionally confusing experience, since I felt Mr. Rashna
never really understood who I was as a teacher’.
This final vignette serves to illustrate how the professional experience placement
when seen as an experience of ‘learning to be’ can be a challenging pedagogical
space, particularly where there is inner personal conflict. In general, when mentor
teachers and preservice mentees focus only on the ‘knowledge and practice’ aspects
of the placement, at the expense of managing the communicative space with delib-
eration and intentional communicative action, then important areas of learning to
teach (being) can be overlooked or become the cause of confusion and concern.
These case stories illustrate how the learning that needed to be addressed explicitly
in the professional experience was in relation to how each respective preservice
teacher was learning to be, as a teacher. Addressing these shifts relied upon a change
in ways of ‘being’ on the part of the preservice teacher mentees but also presented
challenges to the mentor teachers in relation to ‘being mentor’ that communicative
action may have effectively addressed.
In Zandra’s case, her immediately negative perceptions of the mentor teacher,
and the deeply personal experiences that shaped her emotional reactions to that
teacher, governed the way she chose to act and be in that classroom. In turn Zandra’s
mentor teacher found it difficult to interpret Zandra’s actions and overall demean-
our. The challenge for the mentor teacher was to find ways to address Zandra’s
actions, to carefully point out the limitations of ‘being’ a certain way and to promote
and encourage the potential advantages of being and acting in different ways in that
setting whilst working within the bounds of ‘mentor’ (and avoiding the territory
best left to counsellors and related experts). The challenge for Zandra was to be
willing to look carefully and critically at her perceptions and to gain some insights
into the ways in which her emotional experiences were negatively impacting on her
approach to ‘being’ a teacher. Unfortunately the confusion and mutual defensive-
ness quickly led to an unworkable professional relationship.
7 Reconsidering the Communicative Space: Learning to Be