School-based mentoring in initial teacher education : the views of mathematics teachers

Abstract

The Faculty of Education (Faculty) introduced school-based mentoring as part of the Master in Teaching and Learning (MTL) for its initial teacher education (ITE) students in October 2017. My study’s aim was to explore this ‘support system’ through the eyes of Mathematics teachers coming from the middle and secondary schools of one of the state colleges. Drawing on a qualitative research methodology, the participants (8) were invited to a Power Point presentation during which I explained the notion of school-based mentoring and suggested different ways how this can be implemented during Teaching Practice. Following the presentation, I conducted a one-to-one semi-structured interview with all the participants. The main finding of this research is that Mathematics teachers appear to be not well informed what mentoring during ITE. This study also shows that since teachers are not much aware of the mentoring system implemented as part of the MTL, there is a shortage of mentors. Moreover, most participants claimed that since they already have a lot on their plate, they do not have enough time for mentoring. The present study suggests that there needs to be done a lot of work in order to raise awareness of the mentoring that is taking place in our schools and to encourage more teachers to enrol into the Post Graduate Certificate in Educational Mentoring that is offered by the University of Malta. However, it seems that teachers are less likely to be interested in becoming mentors if schools and the education system in general do not generate the space, resources, and incentives for them to add this responsibility to their teaching duties.