Mentoring Trainee Teachers: How Can Mentors Use Research

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Mentoring trainee teachers: how can mentors use research?Tim Cainaa School of Education, University of Southampton, UK

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ISSN 1361-1267 print/ISSN 1469-9745 online 2009 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/13611260802233498http://www.informaworld.com

Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in LearningVol. 17, No. 1, February 2009, 5366

Mentoring trainee teachers: how can mentors use research?

Tim Cain*

School of Education, University of Southampton, UKTaylor and FrancisCMET_A_323516.sgm(Received 12 May 2006; final version received 10 October 2006)10.1080/13611260802233498Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning1361-1267 (print)/1469-9745 (online)Original Article2008Taylor & [email protected]

This review explores ways in which the mentors of trainee teachers can useresearch as a means of questioning, understanding and improving their ownpractices. The first part presents an overview of empirical and theoretical researchinto mentoring relationships. The second part presents four ways in which mentorsmight engage with this literature: (1) generalisations, generated by research, caninform practice directly; (2) mentoring can be better understood by reference totheoretical frameworks derived from the literature; (3) in-depth case studies canprovide vicarious experiences of mentoring; and (4) mentors might use researchmethods to inquire into their own practice.

Keywords: research; initial teacher education; mentors; mentoring practice

In a study of mentoring in initial teacher education (ITE), Young, Bullough, Draper,Smith, and Erickson (2005) wrote: It is difficult to speak meaningfully aboutmentoring. Contradictions abound. Not surprisingly, champions of mentoring oftenspeak glowingly of its promise, while mentoring studies, commonly case studies,point toward multiple and perplexing challenges. (p. 170). This passage resonatedwith the conclusions to a research review, in which Hawkey (1997) spoke of theessentially idiosyncratic nature of mentoring (p. 332). Mentoring is idiosyncratic,says Hawkey, because each instance of mentorship is based on a unique relationshipinvolving an extremely complex interplay of cognitive, affective and interpersonalfactors. The views expressed in Young et al. (2005) and Hawkey (1997) are challeng-ing for researchers and practitioners for, if contradictions abound and mentoring isessentially idiosyncratic it might be impossible for researchers to make worthwhilegeneralisations about mentoring in ITE, and practitioners might reasonably concludethat in mentoring, anything goes. Such a conclusion is unlikely to inspire improve-ments in mentoring quality.

This article explores the potential for research to influence ITE mentoring practice.The first section reviews a number of international, refereed studies into practicalaspects of mentoring (in particular, how mentors and trainee teachers fulfil their rolesin one-to-one relationships), examining the extent to which the research literaturesupports the view of mentoring as idiosyncratic and full of contradictions. The secondsection describes four ways in which mentors might engage with this literature as ameans of questioning, understanding and improving their own practices.

*Email: [email protected]

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Research literature concerning mentoring relationships

Mentoring relationships rarely live up to ideals

Several writers have related modern conceptions of mentoring to its mythologicalroots. Discussing Mentors support of Telemachus, they have located the source ofMentors helping in the older persons wisdom and greater experience of life. ThusAnderson and Shannon (1988), in a widely quoted passage, defined mentoring as:

a nurturing process in which a more skilled or more experienced person, serving as a rolemodel, teaches, sponsors, encourages, counsels and befriends a less skilled or less expe-rienced person for the purpose of promoting the latters professional and/or personaldevelopment. Mentoring functions are carried out within the context of an ongoing,caring relationship between the mentor and the proteg. (p. 40)

Statements such as this are offered as definitions of mentoring, but they alsodescribe an ideal which, as Young et al. (2005) suggest, is rarely realised in practice.Mentoring in ITE usually means that mentors entrust their class(es) to trainee teachersand take a supportive role as the trainees learn to teach. This situation can be uncom-fortable for both parties the mentor can find it difficult to hand the class over and thetrainee can find learning to teach a difficult process. For trainee teachers, an idealmentoring situation is one in which they are made to feel welcome, accepted, includedand supported (Abell, Dillon, Hopkins, McInerney, & OBrien, 1995; Maynard, 2000).Trainees hope for mentoring which, in the early stages at least, is positive, unthreat-ening and readily available (Booth, 1993; Bullough & Draper, 2004). They appreciatebeing given a clear sense of direction in terms of advice and ideas, with regular, time-tabled meetings for feedback and discussion; they identify constructive feedback ontheir own teaching as the most important developmental activity and also appreciatediscussing their lesson plans and observing their mentors teaching (Hobson, 2002).

According to mentors, the ideal mentor demonstrates training, empowersstudents, has other roles and has personal qualities, including the following list:Not domineering, sympathetic, stimulated by new ideas, approachable, has studentsconfidence, good sense of humour, motivated, tactful, patient and tolerant, acceptsown failings, shows humility committed to pupils, wishing to develop (Reid & Jones,1997, p. 266). However, another report by the same researchers suggested thatmentors had great difficulty in acting up to this image:

I would like to have an infinite amount of time and patience. I would like to be a betterlistener. I would like to be more open in my ideas. I would like to relate to people morerapidly and easily. Id like to know more about my subject. I would like to be a better teacher.And myself as I am, on a lot of days, I am none of those things. Im short of time, Im crabby,Im bad tempered, Im not teaching well. (A mentor quoted in Jones et al., 1997, p. 256)

Similar difficulties were reported in Bullough and Draper (2004): mentors wereexpected to fulfil a variety of roles, within a demanding conception of the propermentor. Unable to live up to these expectations, they embraced an attitude of coolprofessionalism towards their mentees, masking their true feelings about teachingand mentoring, often in order to protect them from stress.

Mentoring roles and functions

Various studies have investigated mentors understandings of their roles. Elliott andCalderhead (1993) found that some mentors saw the trainee as being dependent on

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them, using phrases such as a mother hen with her chick. Others saw their roles asa good listener or a friend or an organiser, enabling mentees to complete the tasksset by the university. A pioneering work by Daloz (1986) described the complemen-tary functions of the meta-categories of support and challenge; several researchershave used this formulation to analyse mentoring. McNally and Martin (1998) foundthat most mentors either stressed their supportive roles (providing high support andlow challenge), or had a strong sense of themselves as authorities, but were less ableto engage with the needs of trainees (providing low support and high challenge).Nevertheless, some provided high support and high challenge, and the latter groupwas most successful in ensuring progress for their trainees.

In a large-scale survey, Clarke and Jarvis-Selinger (2005) reported that 52% ofmentors had a nurturing perspective to their own teaching, while many others had aperspective that included nurturing. This perspective implies that learning has asignificant emotional component, and that good teaching involves caring for students,helping them to reach their goals and supporting efforts as well as achievements (p.67). The authors found this encouraging because of the critical role that trust and careplay in discussing a student teachers suitability and success (p. 76). In contrast, Will-iams, Butt, Gray, Leach, Marr and Soares (1998) claimed that mentors saw them-selves, not only supporting, but actively teaching guiding, providing information,offering practical strategies, feedback on lessons and assessment. Describing theassessing aspect, Gay and Stephenson (1998) characterised mentors as judge, juryand sometimes executioner rolled into one (p. 49) and found their supporting andencouraging function at odds with their role as assessors; similar tensions were foundin Dart and Drake (1993). In a comparative study, Jones (2001) found such viewsexpressed by German mentors (who had a relatively minor role as assessors) althoughmost English mentors welcomed their (greater) assessment function as it brought themincreased status and influence.

The role of feelings

Mentoring is suffused with feeling, although feelings are not always acknowledged.Trainees feel exposed and vulnerable, especially at the start of their placements (Elliott,1995) and mentoring is more successful when the mentor can recognise and react appro-priately to the trainees changing state of mind. The importance of feelings is stressedby Daloz (1986) who, reviewing case studies, says: The recognition that passion iscentral to learning and the capacity to provide emotional support when it is needed arehallmarks that distinguish the good mentor (p. 33). Mentors sensitivity to traineesfeelings is explored in an interview study by Lopez-Real, Stimpson and Bunton (2001),which found that mentors felt a particular need to be sensitive when discussing mattersto do with their trainees lack of presence, enthusiasm and commitment this meantusing indirect approaches to de-personalise unwelcome messages and to save face.Maynard (2000) found mentors unwilling to hurt trainees feelings, and reported thatmany mentors also felt vulnerable and in need of reassurance, too. Whilst many traineesfound their mentors supportive, a significant number did not and, where the mentor-student relationship [was] unproductive or destructive, the consequence for studentssense of worth as a teacher and as a person, appeared catastrophic (Maynard, 2000,p. 29). The scale of such problems was investigated by Maguire (2001), who discoveredthat 43% of trainees on one course felt bullied by their mentors or other teachers duringtheir school placements. This survey did not ask respondents to describe the nature of

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the bullying and Maguire (2001) acknowledged that it might be possible to discountsome trainees perceptions of bullying but concluded nevertheless that the reportedlevels are worryingly high (p. 107). Awaya, McEwan, Heyler, Linsky, Lum andWakukawa (2003) suggested that relationships break down because either the mentoror the trainee is unwilling to commit to an equal relationship, for instance when mentorsare too eager to assert their authority, and Graham (1999) described how one traineerenegotiated his power relationships with his mentor by making the issue an explicitfocus for discussion.

One cause of emotional tension is that trainee teachers are in a transitional state,attempting both to fit in to the school community and be themselves (Maynard,2000). A trainee in one study provided a vivid picture of how her mentor communi-cated the importance of fitting in: At first, I tried suggesting some of my ideas andquestioned certain things but, whenever I did, a tight, anxious expression would comeon to her face and I came to see my ideas as an impertinence (Brooks & Sikes, 1997,p. 37). Maynard (2001) found that trainees sought the approval of their mentors andadopted their teaching styles and language use, without fully understanding theirmentors concepts. As a result, their concepts of teaching were often undevelopedpseudoconcepts and their success at fitting in was somewhat superficial.

Theories of mentoring

Mentoring practices can be understood in relation to theories of mentoring and, amongthe theories developed in the literature, two are discussed more comprehensively thanothers. These theories of mentoring are rooted in theories of learning to teach: learningby reflecting and learning through apprenticeship.

Learning by reflecting

This theory, that we learn by reflecting on our experiences to understand them better,has a long history. Zeichner and Liston (1996) drew on the work of Dewey (1933),Schn (1983, 1987) and others, to present five traditions of reflection: the academictradition (in which reflection is focused on subject matter); the social efficiencytradition (focused on the practical realisation of educational theory); the develop-mentalist tradition (focused on learner development); the social reconstructivisttradition (focused on issues of justice and democracy); and the generic tradition (inwhich reflection is an end in itself). Zeichner and Liston (1996) rejected the latter, butsaw the others as fruitful ways of framing the reflective process. For them, this wasessentially a matter of relating teaching in classrooms to different types of aims whichare generated by the world outside the classroom.

For some writers, the practice of counselling provides a suitable model for encour-aging reflection. For example, Martin (1995) suggested that mentoring meetings canenable the student to reflect deeply on their experience of teaching, and to arrivelargely at their own conclusions (p. 9). In contrast, Korthagen and Vasalos (2005)distinguished between mentoring, which involves professional development, andcounselling, which has a therapeutic purpose. They nevertheless presented reflectionas an inward journey, particularly in the case of core reflection which happens whena trainee has a problem which cannot be solved simply. In such cases, they suggestedthat trainees be encouraged to examine specific, problematic events in order to artic-ulate their ideal situation, and to examine the limiting factors in themselves which

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prevent this ideal from being realised. Levels of reflection are likened to an onion,with behaviours at the outer edge and, progressing inwards, the levels of competences,beliefs, identity and mission. Exploring these levels, mentors might encourage train-ees to realise that they possess certain core qualities (Ofman, 2000) that can bebrought to bear on the situation. Examples include empathy, flexibility, sensitivity andcourage, precise qualities varying according to the individual. Finally, trainees areencouraged to activate their core qualities in order to plan new, improved behaviours.

Learning through apprenticeship

The theory of learning by reflecting has been challenged by those who view learningto teach as an apprenticeship. For example, Brown and McIntyres (1993) empirically-based work presented teacher thinking as largely a matter of craft knowledge:Experienced teachers are analogous to master craftsmen in school-based compo-nents of their pre-service education, student-teachers should learn through gainingaccess to the craft knowledge of experienced teachers (p. 12). In characterisingteaching as a craft, Brown and McIntyre drew on Lorties (1975) notion that craftis work in which experience improves performance and it cannot be learned in weeksor even months (Brown & McIntyre, 1993, p. 18). They reported on sixteen cases ofexpert teachers, presenting a model in which teachers undertake routine actions inpursuit of two types of goal: gaining and maintaining normal desirable states of pupilactivity, and achieving pupil progress. In pursuit of these goals, teachers do not reflecton possible alternative forms of action; rather, experienced teachers effectivenesswas dependent on a fluency of action which would be possible only if the action wasspontaneous, largely automatic, and based on only very limited conscious examinationof available options (p. 107). This view of teaching is at the heart of the apprenticeshiptheory, in which trainees learn by observing mentors and by imitating their teachingpractices. The mentor is a major agent for the trainees development, advising, direct-ing and offering practical tips.

Similarly, Van Manen (1995) suggested that learning to teach is a matter of acquir-ing a type of knowledge that, drawing on Herbart (17761841), he called pedagogicaltact. Like Brown and McIntyre (1993) Van Manen found that Schns notion ofreflecting in action does not describe the essential immediacy of decision making inthe classroom. Acquiring pedagogical tact (understood as a form of practical knowl-edge thatbecomes real in the very act of teaching (p. 45)), teachers act from amorally principled position of tact which is understood by the whole embodied beingof the person (p. 36). This means that:

by observing and imitating how the teacher animates the students, walks around theroom, uses the blackboard, and so forth, the student teacher learns with his or her body,as it were, how to feel confident in this room, with these students. This confidence isnot some kind of affective quality that makes teaching easier, rather this confidence isthe active knowledge itself, the tact of knowing what to do or not to do, what to say ornot to say. (p. 47)

The learning through apprenticeship theory has been criticised: Brooks and Sikes(1997) suggested that, whilst it might be useful for passing on lower-order craftskills (p. 18) it is not suitable for education in the more intellectually demandingprofessions, and Shaw (1992) warned that teacher training would be very flat if itwere reduced to on-the-job apprenticeship (p. 58).

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Theories in practice

At the heart of the reflective/apprenticeship distinction is the issue of whether thementor offers advice (a directive approach), or encourages reflection (an inquiry-oriented approach). Examples of both approaches are found in the research literature.Zeichner et al. (1988) found that mentors tended to use a directive approach, evenwhen they claimed to espouse inquiry as a means of development. Ben-Peretz andRumney (1991) reported similar findings: mentors transmitting their experience ofsuccessful teaching practices in an authoritative way, and trainees being mostlypassive. Dunn and Taylor (1993) analysed the advice given by mentors to trainees andfound that the majority of the advice (55%) was given straight, without explanation.In contrast, Strong and Baron (2004) found that mentors rarely gave direct advice,preferring indirect suggestions in which the advice was (a) tempered with an expres-sion implying tentativeness (such as perhaps or maybe); (b) phrased as a question;(c) presented as an idea that had come from elsewhere; or, occasionally, (d) buildingon something said by the trainee. Surprised by their findings, the researchers suggestedthat they might be explained by the particular philosophy of the ITE program and thecognitive coaching model of mentoring with which it was associated.

According to Zanting, Verloop and Vermunt (2003), trainees believed that theycould access mentors practical knowledge by observing them teach, by asking ques-tions about the observed lessons, and by discussing their own lessons. However, thesebeliefs were ill-founded because the mentors rarely discussed their reasons for theiractions unless specifically asked to do so, for instance, by being asked why questionsor by discussing video recordings of their lessons. Haggarty (1995) reported similarfindings: while mentors were able to talk about their practice, they were less successfulin talking about the practicability concerns that underpinned their own decision-making. Mentors tended to dominate feedbacks (a finding echoed by Martin, 1995) todraw almost exclusively on their own experience of teaching, and to promote the viewthat implementing good practice was unproblematic. Areas of disagreement wereignored, in an ethic of politeness.

With the exception of Strong and Baron (2004), the studies reviewed aboveshowed apprenticeship-like approaches to mentoring. However, other studies haverevealed reflective practice. John and Gilchrist (1999) analysed feedbacks from asingle, experienced mentor with two different trainees, categorising mentor talk assuggesting, questioning, supporting, directing and silence, and analysing two mentor-ing meetings with different trainees. In the first, the mentor questioned as frequentlyas she gave suggestions, whereas in the second, there were twice as many suggestionsas questions. Drawing on this and other evidence, the authors concluded that thementor adopted a reflective approach when appropriate, adapting her mentoring to thetrainees needs. In a study of a five-month mentoring relationship, Stanulis (1994)reported that the mentor constantly questioned her own knowledge, values and beliefs,within a philosophical framework of seeing teaching as problematic. Rather thangiving advice, she aimed to present wide-ranging questions about subject matter,learners, teacher knowledge and teaching environment. Stanulis (1994) described thementoring as, sharing her wisdom without telling answers (p. 31). In another single-case study, Hawkey (1998) found that the mentor prompted the trainees thinking (e.g.by asking questions) nearly as often as she gave advice. In this instance the mentoringwas less effective for, despite demonstrating a range of skills such as relationshipbuilding, empathy, providing advice, support and challenge the mentor failed to

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recognise the gap between her perspective, as an experienced teacher, and that of thetrainee, so their conversation became almost two parallel monologues, in which thetrainee talked about planning and classroom management while the mentor talkedmore about values in education.

Although the learning by reflecting and learning through apprenticeship theoriesare often presented in opposition to each other (e.g. Fish, 1995), two authors suggestthat mentors might usefully alter their mentoring approach, starting with apprentice-ship-style coaching methods and moving towards a reflective stance (Furlong &Maynard, 1995; Maynard & Furlong, 1993). Williams et al. (1998) found no evidencethat this happened in practice; rather, the style of interaction between mentors andstudents appeared to remain constant (p. 237). However, Clarke (1995) found that, inwatching videos of their mentoring, mentors were surprised by how little they allowedtheir trainees to contribute actively to the discussions. Consequently they switched theiremphasis from telling to enquiring and were more able to encourage reflection whenthey (a) presented a multiplicity of perspectives on teaching; (b) examined two or threedays of the trainees teaching in depth; (c) prompted trainees to theorise about theirteaching practices; and (d) encouraged them to entertain uncertainty. Similarly, Orland(2001) analysed the ways in which one beginning mentor changed her mentoringapproach: starting by imparting her convictions about teaching, then experiencingdissatisfaction and a sense of defeat (p. 82) which she attributed to problemsconnected with the system for mentoring, and finally, questioning her right to imposeher world view on trainees (p. 83). Orland (2001) reported that the mentors under-standing of mentoring had changed, having more to do with where the person [i.e. thetrainee] is at (p. 85) and concluded that learning to become a mentor does notemerge naturally from being a good teacher of children (p. 75).

The content of mentoring meetings

The subject matter, discussed in mentoring meetings, can also be related to the mentor-ing approach. In an apprenticeship approach, mentoring conversations are largelyconcerned with technical matters of teaching, whereas a reflective approach is morelikely to contain discussion in which such matters are related, either to their widercontexts, including educational theories, or to the inner beliefs of the trainee. Booth(1993) found that trainees were mostly concerned with subject-specific teaching andclassroom management and control. Yourn (2000) reported that trainees also expressedconcern about having adequate teaching materials and of failing the requirements ofthe placement. In a questionnaire survey of ninety mentors, Wright and Bottery (1997)found that they considered practical matters such as planning and providing a clearfocus for students lessons and emphasising classroom management to be over-whelmingly more important than matters to do with wider professional issues, such asdiscussing the relationship between schools and society or considering educationaltheory. These studies suggest that the practical business of teaching and classroommanagement tend to dominate conversations between mentors and their traineesbecause such matters are major concerns of both parties. The evidence further suggeststhat mentors rarely relate practice to theory, perhaps because the mentors own theo-retical knowledge has become internalised to the point of being tacit (Eraut, 2000).However, Jones, Reid and Bevins (1997), in an interview study, found that mentorsregretted that they were too unaware of current educational theory to discuss it withtheir trainees. And, in a survey of teachers, some of whom were mentors and some

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not, Reid (1999) found that, while all the teachers recognised a need for theory in ITE,those who were mentors felt this need more acutely, and were also concerned abouttheir inability to reflect on their own practice. As a result, they are unable to demon-strate to the trainees in their care the model of the reflective practitioner (Reid, 1999,p. 254). A related issue was explored by Edwards and Protheroe (2004): mentoringmeetings focused largely on descriptions of observed events, in order to ensure pupilprogress through the planned curriculum (p. 194). Rather than attending to their train-ees developmental needs as teachers, the mentors focused on training them to teachthe curriculum because the need to ensure that pupils proceed apace through thecurriculum was a constant and important responsibility (p. 184).

Four ways in which mentors might use research

The following section examines ways in which mentors might engage with theresearch, reviewed above, either individually or by way of professional networks ormentor training. The interface, between educational research and educational practice,has come under renewed scrutiny recently and, although some of this scrutiny is philo-sophical, dealing with issues such as whether randomised, controlled trials or actionresearch are more likely to lead to actionable findings (see, for example, Elliott, 2001;Robinson & Norris, 2001) there are also some empirical studies on how teachers useresearch. For example, Ratcliffe, Bartholomew, Hames, Hind, Leach, Millar, andOsborne (2005), studying science educators, found that educational research can,should and does influence practice (p. 183): teachers are influenced by research indirect ways, such as consciously basing teaching approaches on research findings,and, more frequently, by mediated or indirect ways, such as using teaching materialswhich have been informed by research.

Generalisations, generated by research, can inform practice directly

Although practitioners might wish for unambiguous findings that (to paraphraseHargreaves, 1997) if mentors do x rather than y there will be a significant and enduringimprovement in their trainees, anyone who approaches the literature with this hope islikely to be disappointed. There is little research evidence that one approach tomentoring is necessarily more successful than another; overall, the story is one ofcontradictions (Young et al., 2005). For example, mentors perceive their roles indifferent ways, emphasising aspects to do with listening, enabling, organising, trou-ble-shooting, supporting or teaching, acting as a friend, a colleague or a parent-figure.Some mentors see challenging as important; for others, support is crucial. Somementors tend to give advice whilst others employ a tentative approach.

However, some findings are reasonably consistent across two or more studies.Mentoring is effective in developing trainees teaching skills, although it often fails tolive up to ideals. The mentor/trainee relationship is central to the process and traineeshope to feel welcome, accepted, included and supported by mentors. Mentors broadlyshare these expectations but, when they are not met and relationships break down, theresults are perceived as painful. Mentoring meetings are largely concerned withpractical matters of teaching and rarely deal with educational theory.

It therefore appears that ITE mentoring is idiosyncratic, but not entirely so.Furthermore, there is some evidence that research has influenced practice, perhapsthrough mentor development activities, including training. For, although early studies

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into ITE mentoring uncovered primarily directive approaches (Ben-Peretz & Rumney,1991; Zeichner, Liston, Mahlios, & Gomez 1998). Strong and Baron (2004) found thatmentors were very rarely directive. It is possible that the move away from directivepractice was prompted in part by research and, if so, we can expect research toproduce further generalisations which lead to developments in practice.

Mentoring can be better understood by reference to theoretical frameworks

Hawkey (1997), in addition to the conclusions previously quoted, acknowledged thatresearch has resulted in frameworks for a better understanding of mentoring (p. 332).Such frameworks include ideals, contrasting polarities and theories.

Ideals are presented as desirable aims. For instance, Stanulis and Russell (2000)suggested that trust and communication are integral components in mentoring, andposited some means which might encourage movement towards such ideals. Theseinclude all participants revealing their vulnerabilities for the sake of learning andmentors, acknowledging the values and perspectives that they bring to the role asmentor (p. 78). Exploring their mentoring in the light of these ideals, mentors mightconsider, with their trainees, the ways in which they engender trust and communica-tion in their relationship, what factors limit movement towards such ideals and howthese limiting factors might be overcome.

Contrasting polarities are presented as mutually exclusive concepts. For example,Zeichner et al. (1988) spoke of directive and enquiry-oriented approaches;concepts that were further developed in subsequent studies. Although mentoring issometimes directive and sometimes enquiry-oriented, it cannot be both things simul-taneously; these polarities therefore provide mentors with a means for categorisingcertain aspects of their practice. Mentors might approach this framework by attempt-ing to understand the differences between directive and enquiry-oriented. Theymight use these concepts to examine their own beliefs about mentoring, in the light oftheir previous educational experiences. They might then examine their practice,ultimately changing their mentoring in the light of these contrasting polarities.

Theories can also illuminate practical aspects of mentoring for, as Daloz (1986)showed, mentors can use theories of adult learning to better understand their mentees.Within the ITE mentoring literature, Korthagen and Vasalos (2005) used a theorydrawn from anthropology to argue that externally visible behaviours and competencesare closely related to inner beliefs, identity and mission. Illustrating how this theorymight be applied to mentoring, they described a trainee who is unable to managepupils poor behaviour. Although such a trainees mentoring might contain onlyadvice, perhaps to do with altering the use of voice or posture, Korthagen and Vasalos(2005) suggested that it might be better if she were encouraged to consider her beliefsabout herself, or her sense of her own identity as a teacher. A mentor might engagewith the practical implications of this theory by asking: Can my trainee simply altercertain behaviours or is the cause of the problems more deeply rooted? If the latter isthe case, the mentor might employ the means suggested by Korthagen and Vasalos(2005) to engage the trainee in core reflection.

In-depth descriptions can provide vicarious experiences of mentoring

Although the frameworks, described above, are essentially abstract, more concreteexamples of mentoring are presented in case studies. Simons (1996) described how we

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can be informed by case study research, arguing that By studying the uniqueness ofthe particular, we come to understand the universal (p. 231). She quoted from RolloMays (1994) description of a Cezanne painting of a tree to illustrate this point:

The concrete tree Cezanne looked at is formed into the essence of tree. However originaland unrepeatable his vision is, it is still a vision of all trees triggered by his encounterwith the particular one. I can say without exaggeration that I never really saw a treeuntil I had seen and absorbed Cezannes paintings of them. (cited in Simons, 1996,p. 236)

Simons (1996) argued that, in the same way as visionary artworks change the waywe see the world, so case studies have potential to challenge the way in which theirreaders conceptualise phenomena that might otherwise be taken for granted. Becauseof the intimate nature of mentoring, it is difficult for mentors to learn by observingother mentors, but case studies can help them understand their own experiences ofmentoring in the light of other peoples. The following section describes one casestudy and suggests ways in which mentors might so use it.

Graham (1999) focused on a 21-year-old trainee, Pete, and his mentor Bob.Pete was described as vocal worked hard, complained hard, stirred things up tended to be rather conservative in his views of education. Genuinely absorbed bythe subject of teaching he admired teachers who pushed every kid didnt mickeymouse wanted you to be as good as you could be teachers who were male highly competitive powerful (pp. 527528). In contrast, Bob was described asquiet, even mild-mannered (p. 532), valuing the ability to really be curious in thebest sense of being a learner and saying that if youre not floundering a little bit, allyour life, youve probably drawn closure too quickly on things (p. 530). Initially Petewas not pleased by Bobs teaching, complaining that his students created high levelsof noise and do what they want while Bobs approach was they probably dontknow what to write. Youve got to sit down and talk to them about it, (pp 530531).Pete compared Bob with Jane, another mentor, seeing them at the very ends of theteaching philosophy spectrum. Whereas Bob was student-centred, Jane wasteacher-centred, as Pete wished to be. As he developed, he came to see that thatJanes approach did not necessarily lead to better behaviour and learning and he sawthat Bobs approach to teaching had to do with trying to observe kids in action setting up learning situations where the teachers were facilitators (p. 533). Petewanted to teach traditional grammar and, despite the fact that Bob was familiar withresearch on the negligible effect of formal grammar study on writing improvementthey jointly planned teaching and came up with [activities] that were student-centred,even if they were teacher-directed (p. 543).

This summary presents only a part of what Graham (1999) had to say, much ofwhich was about the power relationships between the mentor and trainee. Althoughthe study described a unique relationship, its story has universal elements. Pete hadclear views of good and bad teaching, and used these to judge his mentorsteaching. Initially he understood teaching in terms of opposites: student-centred(bad) being opposed to teacher-centred (good). He started to understand teachingin more complex and finely differentiated terms when he became involved in ithimself, and when he experienced that his favoured approach did not always work.Mentors might use this study to explore the suggestion that trainees have pre-conceived ideas about teaching, which they use to judge the quality of others teach-ing. Because powerful means of changing are to do with being involved in teaching

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and discovering that some approaches do not work, mentors might consider theboundaries they would set, which would allow trainees to experience such learning.They might use Graham (1999) to consider the role of gender in mentoring; theymight also consider the extent to which they would allow a trainee to employ teach-ing methods (such as formal grammar teaching) that they would not use themselves.The study might help them to explore the power differentials that exist betweenthem and their trainees, and they might consider the extent to which they wish tobreak down these differentials.

Mentors might use research methods to inquire into their own practice

Research reports can suggest methods that mentors might use to investigate their ownpractice. In the studies reviewed above, data collection methods included sound andvideo recordings of mentoring meetings; either the recordings themselves, or transcrip-tions served as a focus for discussions. (See Clarke, 1995; Zanting et al., 2003.)Research data included written accounts such as journals, questionnaires, emailcommunications and documents such as lesson observation forms. Researchers usedindividual and group interviews, while Carroll (2005) investigated a mentor teacherstudy group. Some researchers collected all possible data, others focused only oncertain data for example, analysing critical incidents in great detail. Various analyt-ical methods have been employed; often researchers have allowed analytical categoriesto emerge from the data. Although some researchers embarked on their enquiries withclear research questions, for others, such questions came into sharper focus during theresearch process. And, although most research in ITE mentoring was qualitative, therewere also some quantitative studies (Clarke & Jarvis-Selinger, 2005; Wright &Bottery, 1997).

Of course mentors can inquire into their own practice without using research meth-ods. However, Ratcliffe et al. (2005) found that few teachers adopt a systematicapproach to evaluating their own practice, and many have a limited understanding ofsocial research processes, or of how research findings might be judged. As a result theyset research on a pedestal (p. 182) viewing it as a completely different activityfrom anything they might do themselves. Nevertheless, those teachers with first handexperience of a research culture seem better able to view professional practice throughan evidence-informed lens, bringing their understanding of research to bear if theirprofessional context allows (p. 183).

This notion that engaging with research provides a new way of thinking accordswith my own experience. When I was a teacher (to echo St. Paul) I thought like ateacher, I acted like a teacher, I reasoned like a teacher. When I became a researcherI slowly and quite painfully developed another way of thinking. As a teacher, I wasactive in my classrooms. I focused on improvement, on the future. Concerned withwhat works, my theoretical framework was largely pragmatic, and I trusted my intu-itive understanding of what works. As a researcher I learned to be a spectator, toobserve, rather than to act. I became interested in understanding phenomena whichwere essentially in the past they had already occurred. Freed from the necessity ofbeing pragmatic, I acquired a greater range of theoretical frameworks and, althoughI still value my intuitions, I hope I am critical, and perhaps even sceptical about whatthese intuitions tell me, and I now value more what is counter-intuitive. Being able tothink as a researcher might not, in itself, have improved my teaching but it has providedme with sharper, more sophisticated ways of thinking about my teaching.

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Concluding remarks

Recently, at an international gathering of teacher-mentors and researchers, I asked myaudience to draw two pictures, a teacher and a researcher, because I wanted them tothink about the differences between them. Mostly, I think the exercise failed becausethe pictures (people in an educational institution surrounded by children, books andcomputers) were too similar. Perhaps the drawing exercise was inherently unhelpfulbut perhaps also my audience was not completely aware of some important differencebetween teaching and researching. A lack of such awareness might hinder mentorsfrom understanding research reports; however, by using research methods to exploreand question their own practice, I believe that teacher-mentors might, as Ratcliffe etal. (2005) suggest, develop a wider range of possible ways of thinking, leading to agreater understanding of their own practice, and also of the research literature.

Notes on contributorTim Cain has taught music to pupils from 5-19. He has been head of music in two comprehensiveschools and is currently lectorer in Education at the University of Southampton. His publicationsinclude Keynote: Music to GCSE and Fanfare: Music to KS2, both published by CambridgeUniversity Press. His research interests include teacher education, mentoring and practitionerresearch.

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Documents

Mentoring Trainee Teachers: How Can Mentors Use Research