Why be a mentor? Encouraging new teachers and rejuvenating tired ones

 

Mrs Moira Dodsworth

Sarina State High School
Mt Pleasant, Queensland, Australia

 

Abstract: Mentoring is a very valuable experience for both mentor and mentee. My personal experience with one student, as I reflected on my practice and some of my attitudes, has encouraged me to study further and consider what mentoring is, and how it could be used in schools to retain teachers. This paper looks at the value of mentoring for the mentors and some of the issues highlighted in the literature for developing mentoring programs in schools.

 

Many teachers, after years in the state education system are disenchanted and have moved into survival mode. This does not provide the best education for our students. However, as a mentor, my own approach has changed and I believe teachers could support each other and new teachers to have a silent revolution in classrooms and staffrooms.

I teach in a rural school, with high teacher turnover, that does not reach the targets set by Education Queensland. According to (Martinez, 2004), the school will remain that way as new teachers are inducted into a culture of survival, rather than professionalism by the teachers already there. Our resources are limited and much of our maintenance budget goes on repairing vandalism and removing graffiti. My classroom still has a chalkboard, the chairs collapse under the students and the corkboards are gradually falling off the walls. I am creating a personal reputation within the school as a professional and ‘good' teacher by caring for individual students. They know I care and will do what I can to help them. Even after nearly ten years in the Queensland education system (and 20 years of teaching), surviving a forced transfer and being overlooked for promotion, I continue most of the time to believe in what I am doing. One of the reasons for this is my mentee, Tim.

Tim is now a second year early childhood preservice teacher. He has learning difficulties as a result of childhood cancer but he has been determined to teach. I coached Tim for his QCS (Queensland Core Skills) test and helped him with assignment writing in his final year at school, and have continued to do this. This has, for me, been a revitalisation of my teaching. Tim has brought innovative ideas, enthusiasm and a reminder to think about what I am doing, who I am teaching, and why I became a teacher.

This mentoring, spending time each week encouraging and coaching Tim in his assignments and practical work, has been a reinvigorating experience. It is time-consuming; there are no extrinsic rewards and no one pays me extra. I don't get time off to do it and it doesn't even count as professional development - but it is worthwhile. The rewards are intrinsic and from the research (for example, Lopez-Real & Kwan, 2005), other teachers also do it for this reason. These researchers see these intrinsic rewards as collegial stimulation, intellectual engagement, self-reflection and analysis, learning innovative ideas and engaging in mutual collaboration. Over the past two years, I have spent far more time thinking about my pedagogical practice and trying to see why I do things the way I do, and writing about what I am doing, than ever before. This is because my thinking and beliefs about teaching and learning have changed and I spend time in reflection.

Teaching is a very isolated job; teachers go into their classroom and spend time with 20 to 30 students. What they do there is largely their own decision and not visible (Edwards & Protheroe, 2004). Mentoring can provide collegial stimulation when classroom happenings are discussed with another individual. An observer can question the reasons for your practice, so that you must reflect on the ‘why' rather than just the ‘what' of how you teach. Making your private language public is a metacognitive process and part of reflective practice (Vygotsky, in Krause, 2003). Writing about mistakes and successes and evaluating practice is part of improving skills. Everyone makes mistakes but in good teaching practice, one reflects and changes one's practice.

Time in most teachers' days is a commodity in short supply. I drive about 45 minutes to school, so have more time than many for reflection. Sometimes this is productive, sometimes it is not, I always now spend time thinking about my day and sometimes keeping a reflective journal where I analyse my own pedagogy and behaviour. I go back more frequently now to talk to individual students about a conflict and how we can solve the problem, so learning happens. My mentee has taught me this, as he brought his weekly journal for editing and discussion and we considered what he felt had been mistakes and weaknesses, and I made suggestions or vocalised what I might have done in the situation.

Teaching is our profession. It is an academic occupation and we need to remind ourselves of this; it is not just occupying students or babysitting. It is trying to achieve outcomes for individuals, where students are people. Expert teachers respond to what is going on in the classroom and teach to assist learning (Edwards & Protheroe, 2004). To remain professionals, we need to keep up with our subjects and academic thinking in the area. Mentoring is an ideal way to do this, as our new teachers bring the latest ideas to the schools. Teachers, however, often feel that academics want to change practice simply for the sake of change but often there are innovative ideas from the university and student teachers themselves. Teachers also need to engage with current research to reciprocate, so that mentoring is a two-way process (Walkington, 2005b).

Tim also asked me to help him analyse an Education Queensland policy document. I saw little value in this and we battled together with the language and implications in it. I didn't see it as relevant to him or me. However, perhaps this is short-sighted. If we, as teachers, are to reform the system and make changes happen, we need to read and be aware of these documents and of ‘Education Queensland speak'. Policies can make a difference and if we want changes to happen, or don't like the changes that are happening, we need to be proactive.

In Queensland, it is predicted that there will be a critical shortage of teachers, particularly in rural areas, within the next few years. Martinez (2005) sees the Queensland Department of Education as hijacking mentoring and simply adding it to the teacher's already heavy load, as the fixit for this problem. We, as teachers, need to take this to heart and prevent it from happening and accepting this mentoring role as simply another task. At present, supervision of new teachers is done by heads of departments and members of the administration team. If the teacher is lucky, their head of department mentors and initiates them into the culture of the school or some other teacher takes on this role. Mentoring is a very valuable tool that I would encourage all teachers to take on board and practice, but we also need to seek our own mentor, to keep us interested and engaging in reflection and professional practice. (Alvy, 2005) encourages schools to value their seniors' wisdom and to make sure they know they are valued and have something to contribute.

Ideally, mentors should be good role models, exemplify continuous learning, be accepting of beginning teachers and communicate hope and optimism (Rowley, 1999). They are capable of fostering collaborative enquiry and reflection, being empathetic and providing psychosocial support (Carter & Francis, 2001). However, mentors do need to be trained and must be engaging in academic thinking and analysis. They need to feel valued in their roles by those in authority, as well as their peers. Imagine schools where the principal and every head of department was a mentor, not because it was mandated by an Education Queensland policy directive, but because it was regarded as essential to boosting student learning outcomes, training new teachers, and providing teacher professional development and renewal.

References

Alvy, H. (2005). 'Preventing the Loss of Wisdom in our Schools: Respecting and retaining successful veteran teachers'. In Phi Delta Kappan, 86 (10), 764-771.

Carter, M., & Francis, R. (2001). 'Mentoring and Beginning Teachers' Workplace Learning'. In Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 29 (3), 249-262.

Edwards, A., & Protheroe, L. (2004). 'Teaching by proxy: Understanding how mentors are positioned in partnerships'. In Oxford Review of Education, 30 (2), 183-197.

Krause, K., Bochner, S., Duchnesne, S. (2003). Educational Psychology for Learning and Teaching. Melbourne: Thomson Nelson, Australia Pty Ltd.

Lopez-Real, F., & Kwan, T. (2005). 'Mentors' perceptions of their own professional development during mentoring'. In Journal of Education for Teaching, 31 (1), 15-24.

Martinez, K. (2004). 'Mentoring New Teachers: Promise and problems in times of teacher shortage'. In Australian Journal of Education, 48 (1), 95-108.

Rowley, J. B. (1999). 'The Good Mentor'. In Educational Leadership, 56 (8), 20-22.

Walkington, J. (2005b). 'Becoming a Teacher: Encouraging development of teacher identity through reflective practice'. In Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education (Vol. 33, pp. 53-64).

 

Mrs Moira Dodsworth is a senior teacher at Sarina State High School, in Mt Pleasant, central Queensland, Australia. She has taught overseas and in the private and state system in Queensland. Although trained as a history teacher, she has taught many subjects at primary and high school levels and now teaches home economics, SOSE (Study of Society and the Environment) and hospitality. She completed her Masters of Education in 1998, focusing on social and environmental education, through Queensland University of Technology. She is currently studying for a professional doctorate.

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