4.3. SECTION ONE: Perspectives of mentors' roles
4.3.2. The mentor‟s role as supporter
4.3.2.1. Supporting the student teacher acquire practical competence and skills
School-based teaching practice is the period when the students are deployed to schools for the practical component of teaching which includes sharing of practical, hands-on knowledge and skills to acclimatise the student to the culture of the school and the teaching profession (Goba, Pillay, Ramrathan & Swart, 2006). Shulman and Shulman (2004) highlight that it is the responsibility of teacher educators (thus including the mentor teacher) to ensure that student teachers are skilled in the varieties of practice, for example design and implementation of curriculum and assessment as well as understanding organisational processes within the school culture.
The following vignettes reveal how mentors perceive their supportive role in assisting the student teacher acquire practical skills during teaching practice. Some of the obstacles which impede this type of support are highlighted.
Jo is of the opinion that support commences with the student teacher understanding the fundamentals of teaching in the classroom; this will include writing and executing a lesson plan, teaching, assessing and pastoral care. Although Jo reveals that teaching is much more than this, it is important to have a starting point to provide the foundation to build on. An organisational procedure which includes the daily running of the school and classroom also forms part of developing the student teacher‟s understanding of the school culture. Jo acknowledges that the student teacher moves between two different places – the university and school. Therefore the role as supporter is to try and narrow the gap between what the student learns at university and what actually happens in the classroom. She is of the opinion that providing the student with practical guidelines on how to implement the teaching curriculum in the classroom is one of the aspects that contributes to closing the gap between theory and practice.
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I take the student teacher through the daily running of school, the class and show them practical ways of teaching. I always held the opinion that the mentor should show the student teacher how to implement the teaching programmes in the classroom. This is the kind of support the student teacher does not get at university, but is expected to carry out at school.
Similar to Jo, Shastri believes that the mentor teacher‟s role is to provide the student teacher with the tools of the trade. This includes supporting the student teacher in understanding the practical implementation of the teaching plan. However, what she plans to accomplish during the blocked teaching practice session (an interactive workshop on curriculum implementation) and what she actually does (a watered-down version) is restricted by the short time frame for teaching practice.
The mentor supports the student to become a teacher by equipping them with the practical tools of the trade, but what inhibits this is the limited time for school-based teaching practice.
The intention is to give the student teacher a well planned, interactive workshop on implementing curriculum and practical tasks in the class, but in practice we give them an insipid version required just for the teaching practice.
Jae takes into account the impoverished circumstances of the school and the need to show student teachers practical ways of getting around such conditions. She discovered that although some student teachers have had teaching practice experiences in poor and/or under- resourced schools, they do not necessarily have the tools to work effectively in these circumstances. She shared specifically her view of how student teachers need to be supported in understanding how to change waste material into valuable resources.
A mentor supports and guides students to work in school contexts so that they become familiar with the realities of our classrooms and the many tasks carried out on a daily basis.
Effective teaching in a poorly resourced school requires that the mentor support the student teacher in understanding how to work by re purposing resources. Most student teachers expect that resources are available and we have to get them in that mode, where an old calendar is not thrown in the bin, but re-purposed as a chart, or where Coo-ee caps are used as counters in the Maths class, or cardboard can be used to make boxes or placed against broken windows to keep out the cold.
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Edison, on the other hand, emphasised the value of the SIM as support mechanism for inducting the student teachers into the organisational procedures of the school. It is evident that the induction on the what and how of the school culture in the format of a check list document and tour of the school also supports the work of the mentor teacher as student teachers become familiar with the practice of the school early in the teaching practice session.
Edison points to two levels of support at the school level. Firstly, the induction session carried out at the beginning of the teaching practice session. This is followed by the processes and procedures for mentor teachers embedded in the organisational culture of the school. At the classroom level the mentor has the responsibility to support the student teacher. The SIM gives the mentor teacher the confidence, ease, and more time to focus on mentoring with the ultimate outcome of developing confident students for the workplace.
The above vignettes reveal that mentors support the student teacher by making the curriculum accessible and unpacking it for practical implementation in the classroom. Both Jo and Shastri talk about supporting the student teacher‟s understanding of the subject policy statements and its implication for teaching. The findings from their data indicate two possible factors that constrain the mentor‟s role as supporter: firstly the gap between the university and the school related to curriculum implementation in the classroom and secondly, the limited time spent at school for teaching practice. The mentor‟s aim is to bridge the gap as the mentor and the student teacher are in different places. Edison and Jae followed the trend set by Jo and Shastri and also provided support in tangible ways by giving them practical skills to use in a disadvantaged school setting (Jae) and by adding to their experience by being inducted early on in their teaching practice session through the SIM (Edison). If I add my gaze to school-based teaching practice I concur that the period spent at school, where the practical component of teaching exists, where the student teachers would spend most of their professional life, then I would find that it is very limited in terms of time, especially when one has to consider the amount of administration and supervision it requires. It takes mentors who are dedicated and motivated to school-based teaching practice to support the student teacher with practical skills. Developing professional skills takes time. The participants‟
views are in keeping with that of Wang, Odelle & Schwille (2008, p. 139) who indicated that the mentor provides supports for the student to “get inside the practical tasks of teaching”
despite the transitions and rampant changes in the curriculum. It is equally important to support the student teacher to understand and transition into the school culture (Henze & van Driel, 2009). Finally, Awaya (et al., 2003) maintain that because teaching is a complex
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activity the student teacher will also require support in the organisational procedures of the school.