School-based mentoring in initial teacher education : exploring the views of MTL students at the University of Malta

Abstract

The main difference between the field placement of MTL students and students from previous ITE courses at the University of Malta was the introduction of school-based mentoring. The initial plan was to have a „teacher mentor‟ who teaches the same subject as the student-teacher, in order to support his or her professional development and integration in the school culture (Buhagiar & Attard Tonna, 2015). However, this was not the case for all student-teachers given that some ended up with mentors who did not teach their subject. Thus, this study aims to explore the experiences of first year MTL students with regards to mentoring, whilst giving special attention as to whether it makes any difference in the mentoring process if the mentor and mentee share the same subject or not. Using a qualitative approach, data was collected through semistructured interviews from ten participants, including myself – five of whom had a samesubject mentor whilst the other five had a different subject mentor. Before each interview, the idea of mentoring was introduced through a PowerPoint presentation. Thematic analysis revealed that all participants found the introduction of mentoring during the field placement (including teaching practice), to be a positive development in initial teacher education. Another important conclusion was that, there seems to have been no significant differences in the experiences of those who had a mentor who taught the same subject and those who did not.