Researching mentoring, developing researchers: a parallel approach to research and development in teacher education

This paper takes an interpretive approach in examining how institutional support has facilitated newer teacher educators’ professional learning as researchers whilst undertaking a research project about mentoring in teacher education. The research project took place within a faculty of education in England and asked; what supports mentors’ professional development? Acknowledging that mentoring is a social practice and can be seen as ‘doings, sayings and relatings’ (Kemmis et al, 2014), the team adopted a thematic approach to the analysis of data (Strauss and Corbin, 2009) and discovered that what supports the professional learning of mentors also supported their own professional learning: These include knowledge of one’s own educational aims and principles, support and resourcing, taking advantage of diverse opportunities, opportunities to practice and understand how to undertake research and developing strong relationships and reflecting on these in order to develop pedagogically excellent practice. This paper demonstrates that including novice teacher educator researchers in faculty projects builds capacity and expertise and can help to improve and maintain quality within the challenging context of English teacher education