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Better together : reciprocal professional development in a mentor training programme
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Gakonga, Joanne (2022) Better together : reciprocal professional development in a mentor training programme. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3878558
Abstract
This thesis charts and analyses a longitudinal action research project to design and run a mentor development programme for novice mentors within a university MA TESOL programme. This involved students on the MA who were already experienced teachers mentoring their pre-service peers and using the process for their own development. The mentors collected audio recordings of their pre and post observation interactions and were supported to reflect on their practice in a data led, collaborative manner (Mann and Walsh, 2013). Feedback from the stakeholders and analysis of the mentors’ interactions in addition to my own reflections, were used to develop the programme over a five year period.
Recorded interactions of the mentors with their mentees were also analysed with two case studies used to investigate and illustrate the discourse of novices developing their mentoring skills. Finally, a wider view of the mentors’ informal and more formal reflections were used to investigate common issues for novice mentors on the programme.
The main findings suggest that such a programme was well received and can be of benefit to all stakeholders, particularly the novice mentors. In addition to this, analysis of the data shows three overlapping and complementary areas of mentoring; emotional support, support with pedagogy and support with reflection. Tensions between these three areas were found to be the main causes of difficulties within the relationships and a heuristic was developed to aid novice mentors to conceptualise these.
The insights gleaned from the research were distilled into an open access, video based online resource that it is hoped will potentially be of use to university tutors wishing to set up a similar scheme but in a more general sense, provide food for thought to mentors in diverse contexts who wish to develop their practice. In addition, the research provides robust evidence that a data led, collaborative approach to development (Mann and Walsh, 2013) within a framework of Legitimate Peripheral Participation (Lave and Wenger, 1991) has value for a wide range of mentors from diverse backgrounds and with varied levels of experience.
Keywords: Mentoring, Nested Action Research, Mentor Development, Data-led Reflection, Near-peer Mentoring
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HF Commerce L Education > LB Theory and practice of education L Education > LC Special aspects of education |
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| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Mentoring in education -- Great Britain -- Case studies, Mentoring -- Great Britain -- Case studies, Career development, Critical thinking, Reflective learning | ||||
| Official Date: | April 2022 | ||||
| Dates: |
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| Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
| Theses Department: | Centre for Applied Linguistics | ||||
| Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
| Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
| Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Mann, Steve, 1960- ; Pinter, Annamaria | ||||
| Sponsors: | Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) | ||||
| Format of File: | |||||
| Extent: | 262 pages : illustrations, charts | ||||
| Language: | eng |
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