Educators have a moral imperative and job-embedded expectation to effectively teach all students, which requires a commitment to continued personal growth. The purpose of this instrumental project study was to explore the lived experiences of first-year teachers and their mentors who teach in a culturally-diverse school district. The conceptual framework was based on supporting adult learning methods through the theories of critical thinking, constructivist perspective, the theory of mentoring, and culturally-instructional teaching. The guiding research questions addressed the perceptions of 5 first-year teachers and 5 mentors regarding individual and shared learning as a result of mentor-mentee relationship. A constant comparison method provided a process for analyzing the semi-structured interviews, observations, and field notes to determine a unit of data. Triangulation of the units of data then informed possible categories that were noted in words and statements. This process continued until saturation of categories was reached. Spreadsheets provided a structure to organize the data along the way and chart tables and taxonomic representation were used to display results. The mentees' results encompassed 19 themes such as feeling valued, safe, supported, trusted, and believed. The recommendations include the development of long-term solutions for supporting beginning teachers during the first 3 years of their profession with mentoring as an essential component. These findings illustrate that formal and informal beginning teacher professional learning is critical to produce high quality instruction, and to ensure that students graduate with globally competitive skills.

This dissertation follows the development of the mentor figure from Frances Burney’s Evelina published in 1778 to Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda in 1801. The mentor becomes a key figure for exploring women’s revolutionary ideas on female education and women’s roles in society. My dissertation contributes to discussions on mentoring, development of the Gothic mode, and debates over sensibility and sentimental fiction. It considers how the female mentee paradoxically both desires and criticizes her male mentor and his authority. Each author under discussion employed the mentor figure in a way that addressed their contemporary society’s issues and prejudices toward the treatment of women and the power of sensibility. Much of this treatment was traced to a conversation of reforming female education from an accomplishment-based pedagogy to a moral, intellectual-based instruction that was more masculine in nature (emphasizing a balance between sensibility and reason). Frequently, the mentor provides general comments and recommendations about love to his female pupil, who is entering into the marriage market, but his advice often turns out to be wrong or misplaced since it does not fit the actual situation. He is a good spiritual guide but a poor romantic advisor. I assert that the mentor figure’s usual lack of romantic sentiment and his pupil’s ability to surpass him in matters of the heart reveal a tendency to subvert male authority. Throughout this discussion, questions related to gender arise. Women’s desire for their own agency and control over both their minds and bodies underpin much of women’s eighteenth-century fiction. My dissertation explores these complex relationships between male mentors and their female pupils.

Mentoring ist die Weitergabe informeller Wissensbestände von einer erfahrenen an eine weniger erfahrene Person, von einer Mentorin bzw. einem Mentor an eine oder einen Mentee. Mentoring kann auch auf Gruppen bezogen sein. Die Handlungsfelder umfassen Frauenförderung, Integration, Wissensmanagement, Personalentwicklung, organisationalen Wandel oder die Vorbereitung auf eine Berufstätigkeit. Seit den 1990er Jahren wurden vermehrt Mentoringprogramme für Frauen und Mädchen entwickelt, deren Ziel es ist, Bildungs- und Karriereverläufe entsprechend der individuellen Talente und Fähigkeiten zu verwirklichen.

Mentoring has been used for centuries as a way for a person to pass on knowledge, skills, or support to a less experienced person. Mentoring in the workplace, however, was not studied until the early 1980s, and then more than a decade later, mentoring was studied in the context of the K-12 teacher workforce. Mentoring has improved teacher effectiveness (Yuan, 2015; Koedel, 2009; Campbell and Malkus, 2011); increased teachers’ self-efficacy (Ingersoll & May, 2011; Saffold, 2005; Louis, 2016); and contributed to teacher retention (Ingersoll & Kralik, 2004; Cohen & Fuller, 2006). Most mentoring studies and theories, however, have been developed with a teacher population that is largely White. While about 50% of students in K-12 public schools in the U.S. are non-White, only 18% of teachers are non-White. Because teachers of color have a profound and positive impact on students, they are worth studying. The purpose of this study is to understand the mentoring experiences of teachers of color in K-12 public charter schools in New Orleans, and to explore how teachers of color benefited from mentoring in the areas of career development and psychosocial support. The researcher utilized a qualitative, phenomenological approach by interviewing ten participants and analyzing the essence of their experiences. Five themes resulted from this research: race plays a significant role in the mentoring of teachers of color; the charter school system in New Orleans has had an impact on the racial make-up of teachers; informal and formal mentoring form a winning combination; mentors provided teachers of color with validation and cultural navigation tools; and mentoring improved teaching practices and retention. This study can have an impact on mentoring theory as it relates to race and identity. This study also has practical implications for K-12 leaders in the way that teachers of color are supported.

DEd (Educational Management) / Department of Educational Management / The aim of this study was to explore the effect of mentoring as a strategy for teacher professional development. The study was underpinned by Vygotsky, Piaget and Bandura socio-cultural theories. The study is anchored on the interpretivist or constructivist paradigm to enable the investigator to deconstruct the realities of the experiences of practicing teachers during the mentoring process. The qualitative research approach was adopted in the study. The population comprised all teachers at six (6) selected high schools in the Thabina Cluster schools. Purposeful sampling method was employed to select 12 teachers that participated in the study. Qualitative data was generated through face-to-face interviews, observations and document analysis. Data was analysed thematically. The study established that teachers value and acknowledge the importance of mentoring as a strategy for teacher professional development. There is also a need for mentoring to be conducted with new teachers to offer them opportunities for professional growth. The study recommendations are that the Department of Education should develop and regularly implement mentoring programmes to enhance the competency of teachers. / NRF

Work explores the benefits of mentoring for the professional development of teachers and students of teaching. The aim is to contribute to discussions of mentoring in the Czech Republic. The theme of mentoring in our conditions is relatively new, so the work seeks to contribute to the theoretical grasp of the subject too. Research is conducted in qualitative approach using case study design. Case there is interaction between the mentor and mentee, where are defined other criteria for the selection of teachers in the role of mentor to the research sample. Used data collection methods are: questioning by interview via instruction manual, expert interviews and a questionnaire with open questions. Other methods are the video analysis, documents and focus groups. Obtained data were analyzed according to several theoretical frameworks according selected strategy seeking hits/congruence and these initial theoretical concepts were enriched with data from case analysis and compared with each other. The results show that the benefits are perceived more on mentee side and benefits are accentuated and focused on the development in the profession, mentee gain as hints, tips and advice based on experience and the development of their independent thinking within the teaching profession. The benefits for the...

Mentoring ist die Weitergabe informeller Wissensbestände von einer erfahrenen an eine weniger erfahrene Person, von einer Mentorin bzw. einem Mentor an eine oder einen Mentee. Mentoring kann auch auf Gruppen bezogen sein. Die Handlungsfelder umfassen Frauenförderung, Integration, Wissensmanagement, Personalentwicklung, organisationalen Wandel oder die Vorbereitung auf eine Berufstätigkeit. Seit den 1990er Jahren wurden vermehrt Mentoringprogramme für Frauen und Mädchen entwickelt, deren Ziel es ist, Bildungs- und Karriereverläufe entsprechend der individuellen Talente und Fähigkeiten zu verwirklichen.

South Africa, in general, is plagued by high unemployment, especially among the youth. The study explores how mentorship can be employed to foster youth entrepreneurship at Telkom, South Africa. The primary focus of the investigation was to establish whether mentorship could be the answer to the declining youth entrepreneurship in the city of Tshwane. The study was done by conducting a qualitative research, using the Telkom mentorship programme as the sample. The sample consisted of mentors and youth mentees from the Telkom mentorship database. Data was collected using semi-structured open-ended interviews. Data analysis was done using thematic analysis with Atlas Ti 8.0. The literature showed that mentoring has benefits for both mentors and entrepreneur mentees. It also showed that the government and private sectors can play a key role in youth entrepreneur mentorship. The findings of the study have proven that mentorship yields positive results for youth entrepreneurs, which supports the literature in this study. The findings of the study yielded five themes, which were: success factors for mentorship, inhibiting factors for mentorship, role of government in mentorship, role of private sector in mentorship and influence of mentorship on successful youth entrepreneurship. In addressing the objectives of this study, the findings have proven that there is a relationship between mentorship and successful youth entrepreneurship, as per the first objective. The role of government and the private sector were identified as key in the mentorship of youth entrepreneurs. The recommendations made in this study include improvements in the mentorship programme for mentees and mentors, initiatives by government that include more mentorship programmes and better communication as well as providing funding for mentorship programmes. Additionally, the private sector needs initiatives to make their programmes more accessible to the public. Further research to establish the correlation between mentorship and successful entrepreneurship is recommended / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

No description available.

Text in English / There is increasing reliance on youth mentoring in South Africa to help the young person better negotiate life's difficulties. Within the framework of Social Cognitive and Social Learning theories, mentoring is viewed as a learning process in which modelling, scaffolding and cooperative dialogue are key to behavioural change and improved academic performance. However, little research has assessed the efficacy of South African mentoring programmes. This study aimed to examine the effect of the Educhange Research Foundation mentorship programme on the behaviour and academic performance of mentees over a six (6) month period. Mentees in Grades 9 to 12 (n = 18), parents/guardians (n = 18), and mentors (n=19) participated in the study. Parents/guardians reported significantly decreased numbers of behavioural problems (Z = -2.087, p = .037) amongst mentees but academic performance fell significantly (Z-3.661, p=.000). The variability in reports of behavioural change is accounted for by using Social Cognitive and Social Learning constructs including the conditions under which modelling took place as well as expectancy bias and the quality of cooperative dialogue. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)