Principal mentoring in one education district in the Western Cape: A case study

The aim with this study was to investigate mentoring as a professional developmental strategy for principals and to establish whether there was a need for a formal mentoring programme for principals and circuit managers. An interpretive, qualitative case study approach was adopted, with 13 participants being selected for interview via purposive sampling. Data were generated from semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that the professional developmental strategies to which principals are exposed are not sustainable. The findings also show that principals were exposed to informal mentoring practices but were never part of a formal mentoring programme, and that there was a need for such a programme. We, therefore, recommend that a mentoring programme for principals be developed and phased in accordingly, namely the connection between the mentee and the mentor, relationship building and implementation, assessment (reflection), and separation of the mentee and mentor from the mentoring relationship.