Mentoring Perceptions, Practices and their Influences on Relationships during Practicum in Malaysian Primary Schools.

Abstract

Mentoring is an essential component of the school-based practicum in initial teacher education. This study aimed to develop a theoretical framework for the improvement of mentoring practice in Malaysian teacher education through exploring the perceptions and practices of mentoring and their effects on the mentoring relationships during the school-based practicum in Malaysia. The participants were four teacher educators and four student teachers from Institut Pendidikan Guru Z [Teacher Education Institute] (IPG Z), and four mentor teachers from the schools where the student teachers attended practicum. A qualitative case study approach was employed to explore the participants’ perspectives on mentoring and mentoring practices and the contexts of the mentoring phenomenon. Data collection included semi-structured interviews, observations of participants’ classroom practices and post-observation conferences, and document analysis. This study adopted Lave and Wenger’s (1991) legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) as the theoretical lens to investigate the participants’ perceptions and practices of mentoring and the participants’ mentoring relationships. The findings indicated that the shared repertoire of the practice; classroom practices, school duties, communication skills, assessment tools and personal qualities, provided the participants from the different institutions access to engage mutually in the joint enterprise called mentoring. The findings showed that the student teachers learnt (elucidated through Kolb’s (2015) four-stage experiential learning cycle), as they engaged in the communities’ social and cultural practices which strengthened the notion that learning is a situated activity as proposed in the LPP framework. The findings also suggested that the legitimacy of the participants’ peripheral participation in the mentoring practice was influenced by the participants’ teaching experience, training in mentoring practices and the selection of mentors based on teaching experience and seniority in service. A hierarchy of expertise was formed with the teacher educators at the top, mentor teachers in the middle and the student teachers at the bottom of the mentoring quads. The student teachers were empowered when access was given to them to participate more actively, and disempowered when they were denied fuller participation in attempting to attain full membership of the communities of practice. Other factors like time, matching of mentors-mentees, roles and responsibilities of mentors and authority also contributed to the participants’ peripheral participation in the mentoring practice during the school-based practicum. Some studies (e.g., Chittleborough & Jones, 2018; McNamara et al. 2014) have shown that there is a need for a stronger collaboration between the higher educational institutions and schools to make mentoring during the school-based practicum a success in their countries. The findings of the current study indicated the need for the stronger collaboration between the TEI and schools, where the interests of all stakeholders are considered and respected. This study provides suggestions for changes in the school-based practicum mentoring programme and recommendations for IPG, schools, higher educational institutions, and education policymakers such as a review of mentor teachers’ workload during school-based practicum and the provision of training in mentoring for mentors. Future research could look into strategies that student teachers might adopt in navigating the complexity of mentoring during the school-based practicum.