Judgementoring and other threats to realizing the potential of school‐based mentoring in teacher education
International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education
ISSN: 2046-6854
Article publication date: 23 August 2013
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to identify and examine root causes of the failure of school‐based mentoring to realize its full potential.
Design/methodology/approach
The article draws on the re‐analysis of data from two major mixed‐method empirical studies carried out in England. It focuses on data generated from interviews with beginner teachers and mentors in both primary and secondary schools.
Findings
The findings point to a failure to create appropriate conditions for effective mentoring in England at the level of the mentoring relationship, the school, and the national policy context.
Practical implications
Implications of the findings include the need to achieve a greater degree of informed consensus on the meaning and purposes of mentoring in teacher education, and to ensure that mentors of beginner teachers are appropriately trained for the role.
Originality/value
The article identifies the practice of judgemental mentoring or “judgementoring” as an obstacle to school‐based mentoring realizing its potential and an impediment to the professional learning and wellbeing of beginner teachers. It also points to worrying indications that judgementoring may be becoming, through accrued experiences, the default understanding of mentoring in England.
Keywords
Citation
Hobson, A.J. and Malderez, A. (2013), "Judgementoring and other threats to realizing the potential of school‐based mentoring in teacher education", International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 89-108. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-03-2013-0019
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited