The being and the doing of teacher mentoring through the lenses of competency, self-efficacy, and personal lived experience

Thesis

At the time of writing this thesis, the recruitment and retention of teachers is of national and international concern (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2024). The reasons for this are complex and multifactorial; nevertheless, the development of early career teachers (ECTs) remains a primary focus to address this issue. As teacher mentors have a significant role to play in ECT induction and development, a better understanding of the being and the doing of teacher mentoring is needed. The aim of this research was to address this gap, using a multiple methods design employing a mixed methods approach, across three distinct phases; and for each of these phases, a methodological lens was crafted.

In Phase 1, a Delphi study (N = 26) harnessed the expertise of a purposively selected panel to determine the competencies needed for effective teacher mentoring via the mechanism of consensus. These 44 competencies were used in Phase 2 to generate items for a novel and psychometrically robust scale (α = 0.94), capable of measuring TMSE beliefs. Scale testing using exploratory factor analysis (N = 239) suggested a 16-item two-factor model provided the most parsimonious solution of the TMSE construct, with initial tests demonstrating that the scale has both convergent and divergent validity. In Phase 3, an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA; N = 7), shifted the focus from the nomothetic to the idiographic. This methodology enabled access to the lifeworld of teacher mentors, thereby gaining a deeper, phenomenological understanding of what it means to be a mentor. When the four general experiential themes unearthed by the IPA were compared to the themes, and factors uncovered during Phases 1 and 2, strong interrelationships were revealed. Theoretically and practically, the potential impact of this research is far reaching, and it has already led to new understandings of TMSE, and teacher mentor identity.

Authors: Tickell, RM

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-j05yz4drg
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: teacher mentoring competencies; teacher development; scale development; self-efficacy; teacher mentoring; interpretative phenomenological analysis; teacher retention; teacher mentor identity; mixed methods; teacher education
• Subjects: Mentoring in education; Education; Teaching; Psychology and philosophy