A study of the possibilities and challenges of mentoring

Date of Award

8-1-2002

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Education (M. Ed.)

Department

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Abstract

In the last two decades mentoring has become increasingly popular as a teacher education strategy in the west for reducing teacher isolation in the classroom and promoting collaboration between teachers, this contributing to their overall professional development. The PDTs in the M.Ed. program are expected to work with teachers in the capacity of mentors after their return to their respective schools. The mentor and the mentoring concept, however, is a relatively new one in the context of Pakistani schools, thus the purpose of my study was to understand the PDTs' perceptions of how they experienced the possibilities and challenges of mentoring in their schools as teacher educators in the AKU-IED's cooperating schools. My study employed qualitative research methodology, with interviews being the primary source of data collection, together with secondary sources, such as document analysis and unstructured conversations. The principal findings from the study revealed that the main role of the PDTs was; teacher supervision and the mentor's role was more of a secondary nature, which was in the process of being understood and defined by the PDTs and the schools. The study further indicated that the personal qualities of the PDTs and the support received, together with the challenges encountered by them, consisting of role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload, determined the extent to which mentoring was used as a teacher education strategy by the PDTs in their schools. In view of these findings, the study recommended measures to develop a common understanding of the role of the PDTs between the AKU-IED and its cooperating schools, based on the needs and capabilities of these schools.

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