Abstract:
Mentoring, which is a mandatory feature of the induction process in New Zealand, is designed to help newly qualified teachers develop effective teaching practices. Every year there are hundreds of new teachers in New Zealand secondary schools, and each is required to have a mentor whose role is to help the beginning teacher accelerate their professional growth. There is extensive research on the central place of mentoring in the induction of new teachers, and on the various models of mentoring that have developed since 1985. However, the everyday experience of the mentors has received little attention in the literature. As New Zealand transitions from an advice and guidance model of mentoring to an educative mentoring model, it is valuable to explore the experience of mentors whom the Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand [ECNZ] expects to implement this new approach. This hermeneutic phenomenological study was designed to answer the question: What is the lived experience of mentors of beginning teachers in secondary schools? Four experienced mentors were each interviewed three times over a period of three months. Their narratives were analysed and interpreted to uncover the layers of meaning in their experience of mentoring. This process revealed four themes which were common to these mentors: 1) delving deeper into practice, 2) engaging in challenging conversations, 3) being in partnership, 4) coping with busyness. The findings suggest that mentors are at different places on a development continuum in relation to these themes but the interconnections between the themes are very clear. Delving deeper often leads to clarity of thinking and empowerment, and this can be accelerated by courageously engaging in evidence-based mentoring conversations. Mutually trusting relationships, rooted in a partnership model, facilitated both the honest conversations and the deep reflection; while the busyness arising out of heavy workloads sometimes created a barrier for these things. At the heart of it all is deep learning: the mentors’ learning, the beginning teachers’ learning and ultimately the learning of the students. The findings thus provide some clear signposts to guide mentors in a mentoring process characterised by reflecting, relating, challenging and learning alongside beginning teachers.