In many professions world-wide it is common that there is supervised training called induction for newly qualified professionals before they can be appointed permanently in their positions (Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), 2017:1). The designations of the programmes differ from one profession to another. In some professions they are referred to as internships, probations or induction. What such programmes have in common is that they confirm and enhance a practitioner’s awareness of his or her status as a professional (HPCSA, 2017:1). In some countries like Scotland and regions like Ontario in Canada there are professional teacher registration bodies that use induction for beginning teachers as contemplated in the paragraph above to complete a teacher’s professional training (Ontario Teachers’ College, 2010:3; General Teaching Council for Scotland GTCS, 2012:2). However, in South Africa, although induction is intended to be available for all beginning teachers, it is not always the case in practice. Moreover, the successful completion of an induction programme is not a prerequisite for a permanent appointment as a teacher. In South Africa the professional council for education is the South African Council for Educators (SACE). Its registration requirements for educators (which allow them to teach) do not include the successful completion of an induction programme and are limited to pre-service academic qualifications and registration with SACE. The problem is that beginning teacher induction is still not fully realised in most schools in South Africa and that its purpose is uncertain (Hudson, 2012:2). The focus in this study is beginning teacher induction in primary schools in Mbombela in the Mpumalanga province. It investigates the views of beginning teachers, experienced teachers and their principals about induction in primary schools in the Mbombela area in Mpumalanga to gain insight into how induction for beginning teachers can be improved in schools to enhance the quality of education and to promote teachers’ awareness of their status as professional practitioners. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

Organisations depend on strong and competent leaders for their sustainability, profitability and competitiveness. Therefore organisations have an extremely strong focus on development, and especially on leader development. Mentoring has been recognised as a developmental tool (Truter, 2008, p.61) and is therefore employed by many organisations to foster such development. The primary aim of this study is to determine whether and to what effect, mentoring can be used to foster leader development in a business context. The research is of a qualitative, phenomenological nature and enquires into the perceptions, personal experiences and knowledge of people who have been exposed to mentoring and leader development, in order to understand how mentoring has played a role in the development of their leadership. In-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of six participants in order to collect the required data; and South African and international literature was consulted in order to interpret the interview data accurately in terms of the primary aim of the study. The study revealed the following results amongst others: <ul> <li> There is a connection between mentoring and leader development and mentoring can be used to develop leaders.</li> <li> Leader development is not possible in the absence of mentoring.</li> <li> Mentoring can contribute to leader development by focussing on a person’s development and teaching that person to become a good or a better leader.</li> <li> Mentoring has the ability to positively impact or benefit leader development.</li> <li> Mentoring has the ability to develop a person’s leadership capability and competence (i.e. his/her ability to be a leader).</li> <li> Mentoring can be used as a tool to develop effective leaders.</li> </ul> / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

The research examined the professional development of principals in their Highveld Ridge East, H/Ridge West, Bethal, Lekwa West circuits. The purpose was to investigate the role of the circuit managers in the professional development of their principals. The main driver of the study was that in the current climate the emphasis is on student performance, and school leaders are held accountable for the quality of teaching and for how much learners learn. Society expects the principals to be accountable for learner performance and the quality of teaching. In the current national and state policy the assumption is that effective principal leadership is central to student achievement and is in fact the most powerful force for improving school effectiveness and for achieving excellence in education. The argument is made that according to the National Education Policy Act of 1996 and the National Policy Framework for Teacher Education, the Department of Education gives guidelines and points out the importance of teacher development. The study then investigates the role of circuit managers in the professional development of principals. The main research question and sub-questions were used to understand the participants’ perceptions and experiences of the phenomenon that is professional development. The methodology adopted in this study is qualitative which seeks to understand how circuit managers execute their responsibilities with regard to the professional development of principals. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews which involved three principals and four circuit managers. Literature revealed the need for circuit managers to be more empowered with skills to develop and support their principals. The misunderstanding about professional development leads principals to be unclear of the boundaries between their daily management tasks and professional development. Curriculum assistance and guidance were regarded as professional development. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

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Thesis advisor: Karen Arnold / Students in doctoral education view mentoring as the most important aspect of their educational experience (Golde et al., 2005). Mentoring can affect student retention and dissertation completion (Cronan-Hilllix et al., 1986) and is typically received from the student's advisor. However, many Black and Latinx doctoral students do not receive the critical feedback they need from faculty to develop their academic skills (Williams, 2018). Given reported problematic faculty interactions within the traditional mentoring model (Johnson-Bailey et al., 2008), peers offer an alternative source of support. Few empirical studies examine the effects of peer mentoring for doctoral students of color. This qualitative study examines how six Latinx and Black doctoral students engage in peer mentoring and how they perceive its effects on their doctoral experience. The maximum variation sample includes students in five disciplines who were enrolled in one of three research universities in the Northeast. Critical race theory (Bell, 1992; Crenshaw et al., 1995) was employed to frame institutions of higher education as sites of deeply ingrained racism that inform how Black and Latinx doctoral students receive support from formal institutional sources (e.g., faculty, institutional offices). During semi-structured interviews, students discussed how they drew on their own community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) to create networks of support with peers, and the ways that peers provided them with much-needed guidance. Findings reveal how peers played a profoundly important role in helping students overcome significant challenges in their program while providing key information. Students often received multiple, simultaneous forms of support from a single peer, including social/emotional, academic, and financial-related. Peers provided different forms of navigational capital (Yosso, 2005) to students, pairing them with tools and resources needed to maneuver through complex systems that were not designed for their success. Data also illuminated how students received resistant capital (Yosso, 2005) in order to manage numerous challenges. Findings point to the benefits of facilitating peer mentoring for Latinx and Black doctoral students, along with significant improvements in institutional support services and advising structures. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

The North Dakota Teacher Support System (NDTSS) mentoring program is available to 1st-year teachers employed in the state public schools. Because there has been limited research on the topic, the purpose of this study was to increase the understanding of how participation in the mentoring program affects the experiences and developing effectiveness of 1st-year teachers in rural schools, which is important because teacher retention and recruitment are a concern in rural schools. This study was set within a conceptual framework of andragogy and constructivism and guided by 2 research questions that inquired about the experiences of teaching in a rural school and working with an NDTSS mentor through the 1st year of teaching. This descriptive, embedded, single case study focused on 11 new teachers in rural schools who participated in the NDTSS program. Through constant comparison, 11 interviews, 6 sets of conference logs, and 5 performance rubrics were analyzed for the sample as well as NDTSS survey data completed by 154 new teachers. The results led to 11 themes that revealed each participant had unique experiences working with a mentor. Additionally, working with a mentor provided support to deal with challenges and develop teaching effectiveness, especially when there was a positive relationship between the mentor and new teacher. These findings guided the development of a professional development project for rural NDTSS participants, aimed at providing additional support to new teachers as they work with their mentors to develop their teaching identity and effectiveness. The results of this study contribute to positive social change by increasing the understanding, appreciation, and support of the experiences of 1st-year teachers, especially in rural schools, which holds the potential to strengthen teaching and learning in the state's rural schools.

This study examined the general hypothesis that student interactions with front line staff members in higher education settings have a positive impact upon student experiences, and ultimately, their persistence in colleges and universities. This study also examined the reciprocal hypothesis that this same interaction has a positive impact upon staff job satisfaction and service quality. Several bodies of literature were reviewed as a framework for the examination of these questions, including student persistence and related factors, job satisfaction, total quality management and service quality. A quasi- experimental research design was employed to examine an intervention linking new freshmen with individual staff members in a mentor/adviser relationship, and to test the effects of this interaction upon student persistence and satisfaction, staff job satisfaction, and service. The effects of the intervention upon staff and students were measured through the use of pre and post intervention surveys. Also, interviews of subjects were conducted to provide insight into the effects of the intervention, and the day-to-day experience of students and staff'. In addition, data were gathered from student and staff control groups for comparison to the experimental groups. Results suggest that positive student interaction with staff does have an effect upon persistence and satisfaction with the institution. Factors related to this outcome include high levels of interaction with community members, especially faculty, and a feeling of connection and integration with the institution. Also, data suggest that poor relationships with staff can have the opposite effect, contributing to student dissatisfaction and disconnection. Similarly, data indicate that staff benefit from this relationship also, as demonstrated by increased job satisfaction, satisfaction with interactions with students, and the feeling that their work has value for the educational process. Other findings reveal that certain factors contribute to positive interactions with students and the promotion of quality service (empowerment, teamwork, reward, training and association with other service providers), while other factors detract from that relationship (hierarchy, lack of empowerment, territoriality of information, dissociation from other service providers). Recommendations for improvement of student persistence and staff job satisfaction are made as a result of these findings and conclusions.

The study investigated activities initiated in different rural secondary schools to assist novice teachers with less than three years in the field to cope with challenges arising during the transitional phase. The study arose out of challenges encountered by novice teachers attached to my school and other neighbouring rural secondary schools as observed by me due to the lack of clear professional development activities aimed at assisting them to cope with the challenges at work which in most cases lead them into exiting the profession prematurely. I posed a primary research question: How do novice teachers cope with the transition from university to the workplace? Twelve novice teachers working in rural secondary schools in the Capricorn North District in Limpopo Province were sampled purposefully as participants in this study. The study indicated some of the challenges encountered by novice teachers in their first three years of teaching which normally kills their spirit and results in a high rate of attrition. The study employed a descriptive qualitative research approach and multiple case study design to explore the problem. The study used the theory that was developed by Fuller (1969). The theory compared a novice teacher to a new-born child that just got thrown into a new place of which he knew nothing. The theory holds that teachers go through three stages of concern, namely a state of survival, self-adequacy and thirdly, acceptance. The findings revealed that novice teachers working in rural schools experienced a different form of developmental support from their schools due to the lack of a clear professional development policy and the lack of support from the Department of Basic Education. In some rural schools, novice teachers are not being assisted at all, they depend on consultations with senior teachers which they had to initiate themselves. / Mini Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / ETDP SETA / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted