Making sense of ITT mentoring
practises; understanding the
architecture of successful mentoring
Rachel Lofthouse
Ulrike Thomas
The big picture for us in England
• Shift of ITE to school-led process
• Part of the self-improving school led system as promoted by the new National
College
• ‘Self-improving school led system’;
•
•
•
•
•
•
Evidence Based - contribute to evidence and draw on evidence
Data rich - outcomes and people
Sustainable - deliberate building of capacity and capability
Focused - move resource to where it is needed - schools supporting schools
Attracts and retains talent - focused on ITT,CPD, leadership development
Collective moral purpose - peer scrutiny, support and improvement
• If mentoring is part of the ‘self-improving school led system’ how does the
practice match up to these aims?
• What are the relevant lessons for other approaches to ITT mentoring in the UK?
Mentoring as a ‘site’ of practice
Theory of Practice Architecture, Stephen Kemmis
SEMANTIC ‘SPACE’
What is said, nature of the language, its meaning,
intention and comprehensibility, its formality or
informality, how it is received and responded to
‘sayings’
‘doings’
PHYSICAL / TEMPORAL ‘SPACE’
What activities occur, productiveness of
actions, how the space is configured
and set up, how resources are
deployed, how individuals undertake
their activities
‘relatings’
SOCIAL ‘SPACE’
How individuals connect and relate to
one another, what roles they take,
formal and informal relationships, the
significance of power, trust and
solidarity, how individuals feel in the
social space
4
‘situatings’ CULTURAL / POLITICAL ‘SPACE’ What context the practice occurs in and what
expectations and outcomes are attributed to this practice both by participants and by others
NB. The background is
inserted by us as a
development of the model.
‘sayings’ SEMANTIC ‘SPACE’ What is
said, nature of the language, its
meaning, intention and
comprehensibility, its formality or
informality, how it is received and
responded to
‘doings’ PHYSICAL /
TEMPORAL ‘SPACE’ What
activities occur, productiveness
of actions, how the space is
configured and set up, how
resources are deployed, how
individuals undertake their
activities
‘relatings’ SOCIAL ‘SPACE’ How
individuals connect and relate to
one another, what roles they take,
formal and informal relationships,
the significance of power, trust
and solidarity, how individuals feel
in the social space
5
Round table discussion
• Use your post-it notes
• How do your ‘training priorities’ for new mentors relate to this
conceptualisation of practice?
• Take the sample of quotes – discuss them in relation to the
model
• To what extent might this conceptualisation of mentoring explain
experiences, constraints and affordances in coaching?
• Can the model help us to support the development of enhanced
mentoring practices associated with ITT in the ‘self-improving
school led system’?
Quotes from focus groups, questionnaires, interviews and assignments
Red = PGCE Students, Green = Professional Tutors, Purple = Subject Mentors
My weekly hour mentor meetings have proved invaluable in
terms of my progression rate as it is this dialogue that has bought
on my confidence and allowed my mentor to talk of her past
experiences which I can relate to.
It can be the most brilliant responsibility to have being a
subject mentor when things are going well, but it can be
very very emotionally draining when people aren’t
making any progress, when you’re making suggestions
and nobody’s taking any notice and you’re having to have
some quite difficult and sensitive conversations
They ask a lot of questions though as well to provoke you to think,
so if they don’t agree with something they’ll ask a question and
provoke you to think about it and then you sort of come to their
idea and think yeah I know what you mean
If you’re going to do anything properly then you’re
going to have to have the time to do it, so times a big
thing as well as having the right people
As a mentor I would want to feel that both myself and the
student have worked together in order to produce the best
teaching experience for the student.
My mentor was slightly different, he’s a head of department so
he’s slightly more busier, a bit harder to get a hold of, but if
you do manage to catch him he’s always happy to hear of any
problems…. he didn’t want me to feel neglected but he was
already seeing me as part of the team and I could always go to
other members of the department and that was no problem as
well
The attitude of students can be difficult, if they are set in
their ways and not willing to take advice or reflect upon
their teaching it can make mentoring difficult.
When it started off it was like my mentor being sort of the leader of
it and slowly that responsibility’s got switched over to me , so it’s me
more bringing up my issues and discussing how I can sort of learn
from it rather than it being very sort of directed in a way
You’re being mentored by the whole department actually.
I’ve found it hugely supportive.
I would say that I’ve obviously had my subject mentor and
we’ve had the meetings every week and in certain situations
we didn’t always see eye-to-eye but I think it was more of a
personality thing than a professional thing if you see what I
mean, so sometimes it was kind of difficult for me to kind of
go them.
In my own experience when correctly matched the student
teacher finds it easier to voice concerns and problems
therefore creating open, substantive discussion rather than
closed conversation. Thus within their teaching practice
progression maybe developed at a faster rate with a good
focus on subject pedagogy
it was a complete clash of personalities basically so all the
questions you would describe as direct or abrupt I took as
negative because it was very much like ‘how could you have
done this better?’ I took the ‘how could you have done this
better?’ to mean this was crap, so it was very much
negative. That was how I took it
it’s more like an on-going conversation really that kind of
reflective practice that goes on between the 2 of them
(mentor and student).
I think it’s quite nice for ITT students to work with people
who aren’t much older than them who have a real
empathy for their situation and for where they are and
can remember what it felt like. Quite a lot of our mentors
are third to fifth year teachers who are very good who
have good people skills, good interpersonal skills
And when they’re judging you and you’re getting
disheartened about things you’ve done, they’re not
requirements of an actual PGCE student, they’re
requirements of a [school name] teacher and their
policies and procedures.
You need time, you need resources, you need support
because it’s a very challenging role because of the
nature of who you’re working with
If it’s a non -head of department sometimes they’re a bit nicer,
a bit more gentle and say lots of positive things. Whereas I
think the other ones are more constructive, but it’s a minor
thing.
time spent getting to know the student, providing any
support they might need or making sure they feel a part of
the school and department (questionnaire)
I don’t think anyone’s told me I haven’t done anything right
and I’m not like the best teacher in the world. They would
say something like ‘can I just point something out’ or ‘I don’t
think you should have done that that way, but I can see why
you’ve done it, I don’t think you should have done that that
way, but on the other hand this was a really good strategy’.
They would always come up with something that was good
so I wouldn’t come out of the meeting going oh that was
horrible
Onerous nature of paperwork trail: time is sometimes
diverted into this rather than genuinely useful
discussion about progress and reflection