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Mentoring in primary education
Marieke [email protected]
Under supervision of Theo Wubbels and Paulien Meijer
Research in Teaching and Teacher Education, SIG 11
Conference, University of Bergen, Norway June 13-15.2012
Mentoring
Interviewer (I): ‘How would you typify yourself as a mentor teacher?’Mentor teacher (MT): ‘Uuh, I always try to adapt to the pupils needs, in how they are as pupils…[…]’I: ‘That’s as a teacher, right?’M: ‘Yes.’I: ‘And how is that as a mentor teacher?’M: ‘As a mentor teacher? Uuuh….[Silence]….Well, I hope, uhhh..It’s difficult. Can you ask your question again?’I: ‘How would you typify yourself as a mentor teacher? And then you answered as a teacher, about the pupils…’M: ‘Yes…well, by giving the example, I hope they can do something with that.’
Research questions
• How do mentor teachers in primary education perceive their mentor role?
• how do they perceive the relation between the mentor role and the teacher role?
• and which tensions do mentor teachers perceive by combining these roles?
Method
Qualitative, explorative case-study design
Seven semi-structured retrospective interviews
Mentor teachers of academically educated student teachers in primary education
Three phases of analysis
Results 1 : Consequences
MT 1: ‘Oh, Yes! That’s what I think at that moment. That saves me an enormous amount of work. How lovely is that!? That’s what I mean with that added value, right?’
MT 6: ‘I’d rather do it myself.’
Results 2 : Perception of the mentor role
I: ‘How would you typify yourself as a mentor teacher?’MT 3: ‘Uuh, I always try to adapt to the pupils needs, in how they are as pupils…[…]’I: ‘That’s as a teacher, right?’MT 3: ‘Yes.’I: ‘And how is that as a mentor teacher?’MT 3: ‘As a mentor teacher? Uuuh….[Silence]….Well, I hope, uhhh..It’s difficult. Can you ask your question again?’I: ‘How would you typify yourself as a mentor teacher? And then you answered as a teacher, about the pupils…’MT 3: ‘Yes…well, by giving the example, I hope they can do something with that.’
Result 3: Tensions
TEACHERMENTOR
MENTOR TEACHER
Results 3: Tension ‘the pace of transferring responsibility’:
I: ‘And did you mentor her, this student, in any other way than previous students, or was there not so much difference?’MT 2: ‘To the extent that you would normally take much smaller steps with a freshman, while now there were lesson that I didn’t think a freshman would be able to give. And you give a little more confidence, telling her to first think about things herself, and that we will talk about it later and exchange ideas.’
Results 3: Tension ‘transferring the type of responsibility’:
MT 1: ‘Well, if you notice that someone picks up the stuff very rapidly…[…] than you can let go more easily, and give responsibility more easily, such as examining the mathematics test… Because, examining…I let students correct pupils’ work, but mostly no tests. That are things I want to do myself. […] But, when you see a student is doing that very precisely, and could handle it very easy, than you can give up more easy.’
Results 3: Tension ‘the ease of transferring responsibility’:
MT 3: ‘To leave the lesson up to the student. Yes. Well, you know, I think that you can see soon enough if you can let go, by how a student approaches the group. When you think: this is not going well, you wouldn’t let go easily, because you don’t want the situation to get out of hand.[…] When I see the student intervene when the kids are trying him, I get the idea that everything is going well and then I can let go more easily.’
Results 3: Tension ‘transferring the amount of responsibility’:
I: ‘And what happened to you during mentoring from the moment the student started until she left? Did you notice any change?’MT 5: ‘More and more respect and admiration for the effort and accomplishments which they showed me. If she would raise the bar, I followed her. Fine! You can do this, so you are ready to try this now.’
Results 3: Tension ‘To interfere or not’
MT 5: …‘And you can actually see the student think: ‘I don’t want to get mad and I don’t want to intervene’ and you see the student feeling cornered. At those time I say: “Stop, everybody takes a step back right now and if you have anything to ask to the teacher, you will ask for attention. And not all at the same time”.’
MT 7: ‘Sometimes that really irritates me,…than I really don’t like the behaviour of my class. That’s why I say someting about it to the pupils.’
MT 4: ‘I think, for example, when a lesson of a student teacher is getting totally out of hand, than…there are boundaries…should I interfere or not?’
Conclusion and discussion
MT 1: ‘Well, I’m primarily the teacher of these children, and everything is subordinate to them, everything. Because, primary is that it’s going well with this group…and I’m a mentor teacher besides that.’
MT 4: ‘First point is that you [the mentor teacher] are in front of a class and that things should run smoothly. And the second point is that you can hand over the class to the student teacher bit-by-bit.’
Implications
Theoretical insights from mentoring in secondary education are not automatically transferable to primary education.
Mentoring professionalization trajectories of mentor teachers in primary education should pay attention to the double role.
Discussion
What do you think might be possible explanationsfor the difference between our findings and what is described in literature?
