Encounters with mentor teachers: first-year students’ experiences on teaching practice

Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) Students’ Experience of Mentoring

“…Unfortunately, no data currently exist on how pre-service student teachers in the PGCE Programme at Nelson Mandela University perceive the SBL or WIL mentoring experience. Mentoring research within the South African context is important (Moosa and Rembach, 2020). The research reported in this paper thus resonates with this call, as it investigates whether a mentor teacher's personal and professional attributes or actions, system requirements, pedagogical knowledge, modelling, feedback, ICT pedagogical knowledge, or ICT modelling do influence a student teacher's self-efficacy and willingness to return to the same mentor-teacher (or not to return).…”

“…However, mentors had not received training to develop their mentoring roles. Findings from another study by Moosa and Rembach (2020) suggest that most mentees felt unsupported by mentor teachers, owing to negative interactions and experiences, and some felt unwelcome. In addition, it was noted that many mentors struggled with classroom management and witnessed unlawful corporal punishment.…”

“…It was highlighted in the previous section that mentor teachers are not well versed in the roles that they should fulfil. The importance of these roles is vital since, if mentors are not on top of these roles, this has the potential to counteract the intended purpose of WIL (Frick, Carl and Beets, 2010;Dlengesele, 2020;Moosa and Rembach, 2020). Jita and Munje (2022) posit that the mentees' personal growth could be attributed to their mentors' experience, personal characteristics, and the creation of growth opportunities by the mentor.…”

“…In addition, it is also possible that the mentoring process could be challenging for mentors if they are unsure about their roles (Frick, Carl and Beets, 2010;Dlengesele, 2020;Moosa and Rembach, 2020). The focus of our research was to ascertain to what extent the role a mentor is expected to fulfil influences PGCE student teachers' (mentees') willingness to return to the same mentor-teacher (or not to return), while at the same time providing an overview of the perceived roles fulfilled by their mentor teachers and those not fulfilled by utilising the Hudson framework (2004Hudson framework ( , 2005Hudson framework ( , 2009.…”

Preservice Teachers’ Mentorship Experiences during Teaching Practice in a South African Teacher Preparation Program

“…Preservice teachers with little experience are thrown into the deep end, resulting in the negative experiences emanating from teaching practice. Moosa and Rembach (2020) claimed that preservice teachers exposed to negative mentor-mentee engagements feel disempowered and unsupported in their learning journey. Mukeredzi, Mthiyane, and Bertram (2015) suggested mentor training and partnerships between all stakeholders involved, including universities, to ensure positive mentoring experiences for preservice teachers.…”