Initial Teacher Education Mentors as Collaborative Practitioner Researchers: A critical evaluation

Abstract

The role of the school-based mentor has become more central within Initial Teaching Education (ITE) over recent years and will become even more central to such programmes, with the introduction of new Department for Education requirements from 2024.

This article evaluates a collaborative research project undertaken with school-based mentors working with a university-led provider of primary ITE, in the south-west of England, in which the mentors were supported, through four workshops, to undertake small-scale research projects related to their roles as ITE mentors, during the Spring and Summer terms of 2023.

Data was gathered in the form of post-workshop reflective discussions between lead facilitators and through the use of a focus group interview with mentors, who also produced written reports related to their individual small-scale research projects.

The research shows that ITE mentors value opportunities to interrogate the practice of mentoring through engaging in supported, collaborative small-scale research projects and that such activity might form a legitimate and valuable element of enhanced ITE mentor training.