MENTORING IN TEACHER TRAINING PRACTICE: THE INTERPRETATION OF MENTORS’ ROLE IN THE TRIADIC RELATIONSHIP

Abstract

Teacher training is a key element of the quality of the education system. Staying in the teaching career is determined by many factors, however, overcoming the so-called praxis-shock means the first step for beginner teachers. For teacher students, mentoring during practical training is the main support, that is why it is important to know how the triadic relationship between the school mentor, the teacher and the university works. In our heuristic research, interactions between mentors, students and university actors, as elements of the mentoring process were examined. During our research (2021-2022) we asked mentors working in Hungarian teacher training and student teachers who had just completed their coherent teacher training practice. Research was carried out with mixed methods, qualitative (scientific literature exploration, focus group interview in 4x8 groups) and quantitative (self -developed questionnaire based on the results of focus group interviews with 280 mentors and 351 students. In our lecture we present one segment of mentors: how the role interpretation of mentors is influenced by organizational support, and also by the communication with the student teacher and the university (intensity, content). For the role interpretation of the mentors, we made a scale based on different models, which refer to different elements of the pedagogical process and the relationship with the mentor. Our correlation and cluster analysis also shows that the wide range of role interpretation is influenced by two factors: the intensity of supportive environment and communication with universities, as a result of which not only subject-matter knowledge, but also pedagogical content knowledge got in the focus of mentoring. The intensive communication with candidates results in the strengthening of their mental and emotional support, the strength of the correlation depends significantly on the mentor gender. Based on our results, recommendations may be articulated for each party regarding the triadic relationship: the more intense the communication between the actors and the more supportive the school environment is, the more effectively mentors and teacher candidates can participate in the mentoring progress.