Mentorship programmes in public primary schools: Beginner teachers’ perspectives.

Anthony Mpisi,Nerissa Zoutendijk

doi:10.18535/ijsrm/v10i1.el09

Abstract

Many beginner teachers experience the transition from student teacher to beginner teacher as challenging and a huge reality shock. These adapting demands are often daunting and they therefore need assistance to navigate the transition. The researchers argue that mentorship programmes can assist in addressing these transition challenges. The study makes the point that literature on teacher mentorship in South Africa has largely been from the perspective of administrators, designers and providers of mentorship programmes, rather than from the perspective of the beginner teachers themselves. The aim of the study was therefore to ascertain the perception of beginner teachers in public primary schools in the Ugu district of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, on mentorship programmes. The study was framed within the constructionist theoretical framework and made use of the qualitative approach, using structured interviews as a data collection instrument. The study revealed that beginner teachers experienced challenges with administration, classroom management and adjusting to the school environment. The findings further revealed that existing informal mentorship programmes failed to adequately address these challenges and meet beginner teachers’ professional needs. The researchers, however, argue that formal and well-designed mentorship programmes potentially have the ability to address the challenges beginner teachers encounter.

Highlights

When first joining the teaching profession, beginner teachers find themselves having to bridge the disjuncture between theoretical knowledge and practice (Esau & Maarman 2017)
8.1 Findings on theme 1: Obstacles experienced by beginner teachers The first theme, obstacles experienced by beginner teachers, revealed three sub-themes, namely administration, classroom management, and the working environment
The working environment was another sub-theme that emerged as an impediment for their conducive adjustment, as collegial relations seemed to be characterised by cliques, internal politics and existing counter-productive school cultures, leaving limited room for mentoring

Summary

Introduction

When first joining the teaching profession, beginner teachers find themselves having to bridge the disjuncture between theoretical knowledge and practice (Esau & Maarman 2017). Beginner teachers perceive themselves as unprepared and struggle to cope with all these professional tasks, especially since most initial teacher education (ITE) programmes gravitate more towards theoretical knowledge, as opposed to practical classroom experience (Esau & Maarman 2019) Their perceived unpreparedness may contribute to challenges such as workload imbalance, emotional fatigue, physical illness, poor acclimatisation to school culture, and substandard administration (Smit & du Toit 2016). Mentorship programmes are intended to enlist the support of experienced teachers to assist in diminishing anxiety, fostering workload balance, timetabling execution, combating fatigue, school culture acclimation, quality administrative practices and teaching application of the beginner teacher (Botha & Rens 2018) In this regard, Arends & Phurutse (2009) posits that there is a positive correlation between beginner teachers‟ attrition rate and mentorship programmes. The researchers argue that literature on teacher mentorship in South Africa has largely been from the

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