School-based to school-led initial teacher training : reconceptualising the mentor's role

• Main Author: Tyler, Helen Joan
• Published: Middlesex University 2015
• Subjects: 370.71
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.674778

In 2012, Education Secretary Michael Gove announced that Initial Teacher Training (ITT) would henceforth be school-led. At the time of his announcement, ITT had been school-based, which itself followed upon an earlier, school-centred framework. The implementation of Gove's announcement fundamentally involved a shift that placed mentors, who are drawn from a pool of practising teachers, at the heart of the process of training future primary school teachers. While such changes in education may or may not be warranted, education professionals face upheaval during such periods of transition. The shift to school-led ITT takes place alongside another significant change, where the method of assessment that is used to evaluate pupils' learning is undergoing radical revision. This project takes place during this period of extensive adjustment. While it does not question mentors' efficacy in the previous, school-based framework, it argues that mentors are not currently equipped to handle the onus of responsibility placed upon them in the new, school-led framework. Examining these issues from within the workplace, it adopts an Action Research approach that draws upon existing and emerging literature as well as upon the experiences and perspectives of diverse education professionals involved in ITT. It ends with a series of findings, its key recommendation being that while training programmes for potential primary school teachers are being redesigned within the new ITT framework, mentors themselves need a structured training programme to prepare them to carry out effectively their reconceptualised role. This study provides a glimpse into my workplace, the Forest Independent Primary Collegiate (FIPC), which serves as a case study of a changing ITT environment, at a time when the landscape of education is changing to become more collaborative, with alliances being formed among myriad institutions involved in ITT. As an ITT provider myself, I believe that this study presents a singular viewpoint on a topical issue of great importance in the field of primary education.