VARIATIONS IN THE ROLE AND BEHAVIOUR OF THE MENTOR IN PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION

Abstract

Today, in many different contexts of teacher education, emphasis is placed on the changing mentor’s role and the relationship with the mentee, where the mentor, from being a provider of technical professional skills and experience, becomes an equal partner to the mentee, building harmonious relationships, helping to construct the young person's professional identity, supporting professional growth and professional integration. However, the psychosocial aspects of the mentor's role and behaviour in relation to the mentee’s career as an educator are understudied.

The research questions are: What influences the roles and behaviours of pre-school teacher-mentors in mentoring relationships? How do mentor behaviours and the mentoring process manifest themselves in terms of relationship development, information, facilitation, regulation of activities and relationships, modelling of activities, and vision of the mentee? The study of the role and behaviour of mentors in pre-school institutions is based on Mezirow's theory of transformative learning to justify the mentoring activity and the phenomenon of student trainees' learning as a tool for the management of human resources, and on Schön's theory of reflective experience, which emphasizes reflection on action, and which is the basis for the analysis of mentoring activity. The aim of the study is to reveal the role and behaviours of the mentor in pre-school institutions. Research methods included a survey (n=72), interview (n=9) and group discussion (n=4) used for data collection. The participants of the study were teachers and administrators of various pre-school institutions in Klaipėda. The study presents the results of the qualitative research – the role, attitudes, and behaviour of the mentors in Klaipėda pre-school educational institutions, in relation to the orientation of mentoring towards relationship development, informing, facilitating, regulating, modelling, and the vision of the mentee.

Conclusions. The literature review showed that recent research on mentoring is characterized by a diversity of academic settings, including university mentoring programmes and student teaching placements in educational institutions. The mentoring relationship and the interaction between the mentor and the mentee is a dynamic and evolving process. Mentor roles include collaborative learning partnerships; role modelling, emotional and learning support and socialization. Effective mentoring is linked to the mentor's personal qualities and competences, which are manifested in the mentor providing psychosocial and career guidance and support, encouragement, open communication and feedback. The mentor’s behavior can take the form of modelling, coaching, giving feedback, counselling, recognition and validation, listening, constructive criticism, encouragement, support, and protection. The empirical research revealed the role, attitudes and behavioral expression of the participants - mentor teachers in pre-school educational institutions in Klaipėda. The results of the study revealed that there are real preconditions for the implementation of a formal mentoring programme, as the study found that mentoring focused on the aspects of developing the relationship, informing, regulating activities, and the vision of the mentee do not correspond well to the appropriate mentor's behaviors, and they are the areas of improvement. Mentoring aimed at facilitating performance corresponds to the required mentoring behavior. This area of mentoring can be improved if the mentors themselves or the leaders of the organization identify the need for improvement. Mentoring aimed at modelling performance is generally in line with the mentor's behavior and is not an area of mentoring activity and behavior that needs to be improved. The results of the interviews with the participants in the study revealed that mentors have their own unique ways of working, Lack of time management skills was identified as a major problem. Some of the problems faced by mentor teachers may be addressed through specific training, sharing good practices and self-learning. A structured and formal mentoring programme may help to reduce negative experiences in mastering and controlling certain aspects of mentoring relationships.