Mentoring in further education

1. Mentoring in further education Robert Lawy University of Exeter

2. Structure of session • Background and Context • Research • Findings • Implications for practice • Questions and discussion

3. My background • FE lecturer (20 years) • University of Exeter - Programme Director PGCE (PCE) Exeter College Yeovil College South Devon College St Austell College (latterly Strode College) • Taught in the 4 colleges - overseen by University

4. Mentoring • Recognition that staff can benefit from supportive mentor relations - new entrants to profession and/or recruits from other colleges or employers • Mentoring in the 1970s and 1980s in FE and also in schools (informal non-systematised and ad hoc) • Disconnect between Human Resources and Teacher Education

5. Context and practice • Changes of practice - part of a broader paradigm shift following incorporation in 1992 towards more accountability and control • Pedagogical structure of FE teacher education programmes non-subject specific and inclusive of student teachers from different disciplinary structures • Shift from voluntarism towards legal regulation after 2001 (FENTO) – requiring all FE practitioners to undertake training. Previously providers free to do as wished

6. Mentoring: process or product? • Confused response within the sector • Mentoring for Excellence AoC and FENTO (2001) formative and developmental in tone: Mentoring should be developed and promoted as a supportive and developmental process (p.8) • Wallace and Gravells (2005) and Rhodes et al (2004) liken the role to counselling with emotional support – hence caring

7. Ofsted reports … • Damning reports in the early part of the decade. FE teacher education not ‘fit for purpose’ • Reports focused on many aspects. ILPs (documents of record) and mentoring arrangements heavily criticised alongside subject-specific training The current system of FE teacher training does not provide a satisfactory foundation of professional development for FE teachers at the start of their careers…. While the tuition that trainees receive on the taught elements of their courses is generally good, few opportunities are provided for trainees to learn how to teach their specialist subjects, and there is a lack of systematic mentoring and support in the workplace. (Ofsted, 2003)

8. .. and other ‘evidence’ • Re-emphasised in Equipping our Teachers for the Future (DfES, 2004) an essential aim of the training is that teachers should have the skills of teaching in their own specialist or curriculum area … Subject specific skills must be acquired in the teachers’ workplace and from vocational or academic experience. Mentoring, either by line managers, subject experts or experienced teachers in related curriculum areas, is essential. (DfES, 2004) By 2007 such views were established within the lexicon of FE training Your mentor will be skilled in what is called the pedagogy of the classroom. You will also be given access to a subject specialist coach (this may be the same person as your mentor/learning coach) who will help you develop the skills that are specific to your areas of the curriculum. (Keeley-Browne, 2007, p. 9)

9. Summary of changes .. • Ofsted inspection system very much grounded in school-based system – subject specific. Contrasts with approach taken in FE (and Adult Education) • More rigorous formal and systematised testing and assessment alongside a) APL b) Mentoring c) ILPS • Mentor role and subject coach assumed to be both identical and non-problematic • Little understanding of nature of FE’s complexity despite introduction of raft of new qualifications PTTLS, CTLLS and DTTLS alongside PGCE programmes (implications for HEI’s of single grading)

10. The research (Lawy and Tedder 2009) • Commissioned by the SW CETT in response to the changes in the sector (2 projects collapsed into 1) • Focus upon ILPS, mentors and mentor training and models of good practice • Undertaken in 2008 (in midst of inspection) • Comprehensive literature review • 28 semi-structured interviews with managers mentors and full and part time trainees in SW region (45 minutes to 1 hour)

11. Places of work and training

12. Literature review • Models of practice from public and private sectors (not FE specific) Balfour Beatty Deutsche Bank Birmingham Adult Education Service (BAES) Training and Development Agency (TDA) European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)

13. Mentoring and Coaching • All the organisations committed to the idea of mentoring but with different approaches • CIPD emphasises the distinction between mentoring and coaching which it sees as: developing a person’s skills and knowledge so that their job performance improves, hopefully leading to the achievement of organisational objectives. It targets high performance and improvement at work, although it may also have an impact on an individual’s private life. It usually lasts for a short period and focuses on specific skills and goals. (CIPD 2010)

14. Interviews • Qualitative – interviews open-ended and semi-structured to enable participants to explore their understandings, without an imposed framework (What do you think – Can you tell me… How did that feel .. etc…) • Issues that arose a) Agency and response of teaching staff (1 article) b) Performativity (1 article) c) Mentoring and ILPS (2 articles) d) Professional formation – Learning journeys (1 article)

15. Just a taste ... (trainees sic) • Edward - new career as an engineering lecturer (PGCE) - previously senior role in industry I come from a world where we sit down and we discuss and we plan and we put the plan together, you know, and everybody knows their part… you quickly assess the situation, people, you give it a good hard kick to see what falls out, you …see what’s going on and then you move forward ... • Emphasises the link between ILP and mentoring. Unimpressed with his mentor (as a subject coach or as a support)

16. More … Whenever I’ve coached or mentored people I’ve always gone deep, let them get to point where they don’t know something … “Stop, make a note, that’s your objective for the next one. I want to know what that means and you’re going to explain it to me and you have a week to do so”... • Not all the student teachers had that view. As Ian explained [H]e gets really, really good grades from Ofsted and I love his teaching style and I’ve – the personality behind it, the passion that he’s got. …. We see each other, you know, at least once a week, anyway because I’m in his lecture, we do lectures together and we get five, ten minutes after, five, ten minutes before.

17. Managers and tutors – responsible for programmes and courses • Different perceptions and the value of new mentoring and ILP arrangements (ILP versus student diary or log) • Angela (25 years in FE) emphasised the distinction between line-management and mentoring: The first issue [is] whether or not the person who actually mentors you is from the same specialist area. But does that matter? … My take on mentoring, is very much that a mentor can only be effective … if there’s a healthy communication between the two.

18. Mentoring and coaching • She continued A coach is one who says you know maybe, ‘This is how it, this is how it ought to be done, you know, give it a try and see,’ or you know, in that sort of context. Whereas a mentor is someone who says, ‘Well how do you think you will best achieve that?’ • Clear view of coaching as definitive whereas mentors role to recognise and discuss the contested nature of professional practice

19. Continued … • Other managers and tutors were less critical and could, as in the case of Andrew, see some value in the new Ofsted arrangements The new standards have made absolutely clear that [pause] to reach a professional level of teaching one’s own subject and mediating one’s own subject for learning is an important strand …a process supported by a proper mentoring system, struck one as both overdue and very necessary.

20. Findings • Need for training of mentors/coaches to fulfil duties appropriately (many mentees critical of practices adopted by mentors) • Need to integrate teacher education mentor practices with other organisational systems structures - 4 strands • Subject pedagogical/specific mentoring • Mentoring for induction • Mentoring to become part of a community of practice • Mentoring for personal development

21. Mentoring and/or Coaching Formative and performative models of mentoring

22. Dyadic or triadic • Colley (2003) - background in Careers Guidance for young people uses phrase engagement mentoring to describe aspects of the formative model. Emphasises the value of developing relationships based on trust • Distinguishes two types of mentoring relationship a) dyadic – two way relationship between mentor and mentee b) triadic – three way relationship that serves the needs of the third party

23. Discussion and Implications • What is the purpose of a mentor? • Characterisation of the ‘learning journey’ of student teachers. Are they tourists on a standard package holiday, a collection of strangers following a route map …. or travellers in a reflective discussion (Tedder & Lawy 2013) • Opportunity for the future (do the right thing rather than that which is required) a) separation of coaching and mentoring into discrete functions b) development of teacher education programme to achieve this

24. References • Tedder, M & Lawy, R. (2013) Learning journeys: student teacher stories of professional formation. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 37(1) pp. 54-70. • Lawy, R. & Tedder, M. (2012) Beyond compliance: teacher education practice in a performative framework. Research Papers in Education, 27(3) pp. 303-318. • Lawy, R. & Tedder, M . (2011) Mentoring and Individual Learning Plans: issues of practice in a period of transition. Research in Post-Compulsory Education 16(3) pp. 385-396. • Tedder, M. & Lawy, R. (2010) ‘Passionate about teaching’ – the role of mentors in implementing professional standards. Teaching in Lifelong Learning, 2(2) pp. 45-55. • Tedder, M. & Lawy, R. (2009) The pursuit of ‘excellence’: mentoring in FE initial teacher training. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 61(4) pp.413-429. • Lawy, R. & Tedder, M. (2009). Meeting standards: teacher education in the further education sector. What of the agency of teacher educators? Studies in the Education of Adults, 41(1) pp. 53-67. • Lawy, R. & Tedder, M. (2009) Further education initial teacher education in the learning and skills sector in the SW of England: ILPs, mentors and mentor training. Exeter: University of Exeter and SWitch CETT