Section archive - Mentoring & Supervision

This study investigated the influence of only two factors on students’ willingness to mentor: a personality-related factor (altruism) and a contextual factor (organizational culture). The quantitative analysis shows that organizational culture and altruism significantly impact students’ willingness to mentor their peers. Peer mentoring can help students prepare their transition from high school to university, guide them through university programs, and help them prepare their transition from university to workplace. The study suggests that universities do have a role to play in promoting students’ interest in peer mentoring programs through the development of a culture of support and mutual help.

This article reveals how the art device of trompe l’oeil provided a way of thinking about the induction and mentoring experiences of beginning teachers. Both the trompe l’oeil art device and the theoretical lens illuminated the reframing of the participants’ initial understandings of mentor relationships to gain a different perspective on their early professional lives.

This study addresses research questions regarding how mentors perceive their role, what preparation they receive to serve as effective mentors, and what are their professional needs. The study illuminates essential aspects of the mentors’ role perception and the impact of mentoring education on the professional identity of mentors. The implications are that low involvement in PD workshops could be linked to the uncertainty in mentors’ own self-perception as mentors.

This article examines how primary school mentor teachers made their decisions regarding teacher candidates' practicum performance. The mentor teachers’ explanations for their decisions gave the authors access to their ‘cue utiltisation validities’ - how they used the cues they identified. Within the participant group some appeared to emphasise personal attribute dimensions, other professional practice dimensions; for others it was difficult to determine a preference. There was, however, evidence that the mentors did not emphasise one thing to the exclusion of the other cues with weaker cues being used to moderate their decisions. Overall, the judgment-making in this study was considered, careful and reasoned e and widely variable. There was also some evidence of internal dissensus for individual mentors, leading to confusion around assessment of TC practice.