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Prospective Mentors' Views on Partnership in Secondary Teacher Training
Author(s) -
Saunders Sam,
Pettinger Kate,
Tomlinson Peter
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/0141192950210206
Subject(s) - facilitator , enthusiasm , typology , general partnership , psychology , context (archaeology) , pedagogy , professional development , mathematics education , qualitative research , sociology , social psychology , paleontology , social science , finance , anthropology , economics , biology
In the context of a wholesale shift to a school‐based partnership arrangement for the initial training of teachers in the UK, 32 prospective teacher mentors were interviewed using the technique of hierarchical focusing. Twenty‐nine taped transcripts were codified and analysed to reveal aspects of espoused theory in relation to school teacher involvement in the professional training of student teachers. Four general themes are identified from qualitative analysis: enthusiasm for the change; an assumption of learning by immersion in schools; a concern with the constraint of time; and a tendency to general rather than specific thinking. Cluster analysis of 29 transcript profiles on 27 categories of mentoring functions suggested a loose typology of four potential orientations: the hands‐off facilitator, the progressively collaborative mentor, the professional friend and the classical mentor. Respondents' recognition of these orientations in their own thinking and implications for further research and training applications are discussed.