Willy, Tessa; (2023) Lived experiences of teacher mentors; the importance of context and partnership in mentoring arrangements in the English school system. Doctoral thesis (Ed.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Teacher mentoring is a crucial component of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and has grown in importance with its reconfiguration towards school-centred Initial Teacher Training. However, schools, whose primary focus is educating pupils, may lack the capacity, and in some cases the capability, to support increased mentoring expectations, resulting in varied and inconsistent mentoring practice. What then are the conditions that enable or constrain mentor practice? Using a social constructivist paradigm with an interpretivist stance, the research examines what enables and constrains mentors’ practice through an initial mentor survey, followed by detailed interviews. Data were thematically analysed, facilitated through an activity theory framework, employing the theory of practice architecture and concept of ecology of practices, to ascertain those factors impacting mentors’ practice. Analysis of the data reveals the importance of the context in which mentors work, and that the role of both the school and the provider is critical in creating a quality mentoring environment. The findings suggest there are four ‘capacities’ (organisational, staff, mentor, and partnership) operating within the school and provider context that influence teachers’ experiences of mentoring. School and provider capacities may enable and/or constrain mentoring practice along a continuum from strongly enabling to strongly constraining. Amalgamating the continuums, I created a four-quadrant framework illustrating how school and provider contexts interact. Each quadrant represents a mentoring ecology characterising different circumstances of mentor practice with varying levels of efficacy. The findings suggest it is both the provider and the school working in partnership that influences mentors’ experience. In particular, the role of the school is underestimated in a policy landscape currently focussed on managing and assessing the provider. This has wider ramifications for mentor driven policy areas such as the Early Career Framework and ITT Market Reform and suggests a greater need for future focus on partnership.

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