Mentor Training Needs

Dr Ewan Ingleby, Senior Lecturer in Education,

University of Teesside

The Educational Context‘The problem is that more has changed and more disjointly, than one at first imagines. The context has altered, in many ways superficially, in a few profoundly. But so and likewise has the academic. So has the discipline in which the academic works, and the intellectual setting within which that discipline exists. So has everyone’s sense of what is available from life.

It is Heraclitus cubed and worse.’

Clifford Geertz, 1995, ‘After The Fact’

Theoretical BackgroundLucas (2007) has recently explored the implications of

‘standards driven education’ by arguing that the consequences of ‘pleasing the inspectorate’ can mean that many academic curricula respond more to the needs of the guardians of academic standards as opposed to existing for ‘purely for learners’.

Bryan and Carpenter (2008) and others (e.g. Wenger, 1998) draw attention to the importance of ‘communities of practice’ in the ‘social process’ of ‘learning’.

Is mentoring a ‘community of practice’ or a ‘community of discord’ linking to Habermas, (1989), & Ingleby and Hunt (2008)?

Theoretical BackgroundStudent teachers consider mentoring to be a

key aspect of the training process (Hobson, 2002, Brookes 2005).

OFSTED inspections post-2005 have identified concerns with the inconsistency of mentor support.

The inspection findings appear to suggest that further research needs to be done on identifying mentor CPD needs and training mentors.

Research ObjectivesIdentify ITT mentor training needs.Analyse current ITT mentor training

initiatives.Appraise the benefits of mentoring to ITT

students.

Research ProcessQuestionnaires about mentor training needs

issued to 2 sets of ITT students and mentors in 2 ITT centres since 2005-2008, (the project has been funded this academic year via ESCalate).

Semi-structured interviews with 8 ITT mentors.

The methodology mirrors the successful methodology of Brookes (2005).

Reflection on the OFSTED inspection process of ITT in 2004-2005, 2005-2006 and 2008-2009.

Preliminary FindingsMentor role needs clarification.Greater awareness of ITT programme

aims is required by student mentors.Who mentors the mentors?Mentor training needs to be consistent.Professional boundaries are

underdeveloped within the mentor/mentee relationship.

Theoretical ImplicationsAsclepius V Hippocrates debate.Coffield notion of ‘Platonic Educationalists’

resisting centrally directed ‘civil service’ ‘standards driven’ educational initiatives.

Educational initiatives should come from within ‘communities of practice’ as opposed to being centrally (eg IFL) directed.

Teaching discourse is increasingly informal (linking to Foucault’s ideas about changing forms of power).

The uncertainty about ITT mentoring means the process does not easily reinforce established values (linking to Bourdieu’s notion of cultural capital).

ReferencesBrookes, W. (2005) The graduate teacher training programme in England: mentor training,

quality Assurance and the findings of inspection, Journal of In-Service Education, 31, 43-61. Carpenter, H and Bryan, C, (2008) Mentoring a practice developed in community. Journal of In-Service Education, 34, 47-61.Coffield, F. (2004) Learning Styles London: LSDA Publications.Downie, R & Randall, F (1999) Palliative Care Ethics: A Companion for All Specialities.Oxford: Oxford University Press.Geertz, C (1998) After the fact. Cambridge MA.: Harvard University Press. Habermas, J. (1989) The structural transformation of the public sphere: an inquiry into bourgeoise society. Cambridge MA.: MIT Press.Hobson, A.J. (2002) Student teachers perceptions of school-based mentoring in initial teacher training (ITT) Mentoring and Tutoring, 10, 5-20Ingleby, E & Hunt, J (2008) the CPD needs of mentors in post-compulsory Initial Teacher Training in England. Journal of In-Service Education, vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 61-74.Lucas, N. (2007) The in-service training of adult literacy, numeracy and English for Speakers of Other Languages teachers in England; the challenges of a ‘standards-led model. Journal of In-Service Education, 33, 125-142.Wenger, E, (1998) Communities of practice: learning, meeting and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.