Mentor teachers’ perspectives on their mentoring role in the development of student teachers’ teacher identity

Abstract

Work integrated learning (WIL) has been identified as a critical period for student teachers’ teacher identity development. Within the South African context mentorship of student teachers by mentor teachers is in some cases lacking. Reasons for this include lack of mentor teacher training and uncertain role expectations. In light of this the descriptive case study of limited scope sought to explore mentor teachers’ perspectives of their mentoring role in the development of student-teachers’ teacher identity during WIL. In depth interviews were conducted with four experienced mentor teachers at a private school in Johannesburg. The participants’ responses were analysed interpretatively using inductive thematic analysis. Findings revealed that participants perceive their role to include interrogating pedagogical knowledge, system requirements, modelling, feedback, personal attributes and a safe and nurturing relationship into their mentoring practice. The findings are in line with the adapted Model for Effective mentoring by Hudson, and other relevant research on the topic of student teacher mentorship. In addition to this the current study revealed that student teacher attitude plays an important part of the mentorship process and that authentic teachers are developed through authentic mentorship in which mistakes are welcomed as part of the learning process. The implication is that mentor teachers and student teachers need to work together during Work Integrated Learning to ensure that mentorship is mutually beneficial for the positive development of teacher identity.