The CPD (Continuing Professional Development) Needs of Mentors in Post-Compulsory ITT (Initial Teacher Training)

Grant type: Developing Pedagogy and Practice 2009
Round: Pedagogy and Practice 2009
Amount awarded £1,119.20
Completed: February 2011
Leader(s): Dr Ewan Ingleby
Organisation: University of Teesside
Contact Email: e.ingleby@tees.ac.uk
Contact phone: 01642 342817
Partners:
Hartlepool College of FE
Initial Teacher Training
Middlesbrough College
Initial Teacher Training
New College Durham
Initial Teacher Training
Stockton Riverside College
Initial Teacher Training
Start Date: 1 December 2009
End Date: 31 January 2011
Interim report received: 13 January 2011
Final report received: 25 January 2011

This research project has gathered qualitative data on mentoring within PCET ITT (Post-Compulsory Education and Training Initial Teacher Training). The research findings complement the work of Tedder and Lawy (2009) and Ingleby (2010). The research methodology draws on the conceptual framework of hermeneutics by developing Richardson’s (2000, 2004) process of ‘crystallisation’. This means that the methodological process has been influenced by Gadamer’s (2004) hermeneutics by placing what Urban (2008, p146) refers to as ‘the way we are in the world (ontology) before ‘the constitution of warranted knowledge (epistemology)’. The research findings are based on questionnaire data that has been gathered from 80 PCET ITT students and their mentors alongside semi-structured interview data from eight mentors. The research has generated the following main findings:

  1. PCET ITT mentors are unsure of their role in relation to PCET ITT programmes.
  2. Mentor training needs within PCET ITT are not currently being met due to the inconsistency of the current available training.
  3. Professional boundaries within the PCET ITT mentor/mentee relationship can lack clarity.

These findings link to the work of Michel Foucault (1971, 1974, 1977, 1986) and Pierre Bourdieu (1986, 1992, 1993, 2005).

Ingleby, E. (2010) 'Robbing Peter to pay Paul: the price of standards-driven education'. Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 15:4, 437-440. An online copy can be accessed by subscribers (see links section)

Ingleby, E. (2010) 'Asclepius or Hippocrates? Differing interpretations of postcompulsory initial teacher training mentoring'. Journal of Vocational Education and Training (JVET). An author's proof can be accessed from the link on the right