The problematic context of mentoring: evidence from an English language teaching department at a Turkish university


Yavuz A.

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF TEACHER EDUCATION, cilt.34, sa.1, ss.43-59, 2011 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 34 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2011
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1080/02619768.2010.516431
  • Dergi Adı: EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF TEACHER EDUCATION
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.43-59
  • Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

'Mentoring' has become the central issue of the 'restructuring programme' in education faculties in Turkey since 1998. This study aims to explore the participants' perceptions and experiences about the concepts of 'mentor' and 'mentoring'. A mentor and six English Language Teaching Department (ELT) students, who were in the final year of their training programme, participated in the study. A qualitative case study methodology was employed and data were collected through semi-structured interviews with faculty students and mentors, semi-structured journals kept only by the faculty students and debriefing notes kept only by the researcher. The findings demonstrate important issues about the nature, functions, benefits, and problems of the mentoring experienced by the faculty students at the particular department such as the need for developing selection criteria and training programmes for mentors and organising regular meetings and seminars about the partnership programme for mutual understanding and sharing opinions. Drawing on the data, recommendations and implications are suggested.