Mentor teachers’ perspectives of student teachers’ emotional challenges

• Learning to work as a teacher in teacher education includes encountering schools during work-based learning. This period includes having mentoring teachers assigned to support student teachers in acquiring teaching skills and guiding in understanding teachers’ work. Mentoring conversations are commonly carried out, but rarely focus on student teachers’ coping with emotional challenges. Therefore, we aimed to investigate mentoring teachers’ perspectives on scenarios on student teachers’ reported emotional challenges. We conducted a constructivist grounded theory study where 22 mentoring teachers were interviewed, using scenarios from student teachers’ narratives. The data were analysed through initial, focused, and theoretical coding. The findings show that mentoring teachers’ main concern was that student teachers should consider all situations, including emotionally challenging episodes, as opportunities for learning. When discussing the scenarios, they emphasized strategies that involved regulating, engaging/helping, being exemplary, and taking charge. The findings are discussed in relation to existing literature on mentoring. This study is theoretical and educational significant as we use the perspectives of the mentoring teachers in relation to student teachers’ emotional challenges. Mentoring teachers’ perspectives are important, if we want student teachers experiences during work-based learning to soften the practice shock associated with being a new teacher.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

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