The dilemma of mentoring in Mathematics teaching: implications for teacher preparation in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The adoption of school-based models of teacher preparation in recent years also triggered the rise of mentoring, both as a practice and a research area in teacher education. Most of the attention, however, has been given to generic mentoring concerns in initial teacher preparation and, often, for primary school. This article takes the discussion into the subject specific area of mathematics teaching at the secondary level. In particular, the authors highlight the problematic aspects of mentoring mathematics teachers and preparing such mentors that derive from the nature of the subject matter itself. The discussion builds up to the dilemma that mathematics mentoring requires the mentor to ‘behave like a mathematician’, which immediately leads to the inevitable questions, ‘How do mathematicians behave?’ and ‘How can those behaviours be engendered in potential mentors?’ The article concludes by exploring the implications that this dilemma might have for the specific situation of the Zimbabwean teacher preparation environment that is beginning to move towards a school-based model.