The need for Qualified School Teacher Mentors for Initial Teacher Training, Early Career Teachers and Beyond: Why don’t school teacher mentors need a qualification in mentoring?

RESEARCH ARTICLE The need for Qualified School Teacher Mentors for Initial Teacher Training, Early Career Teachers and Beyond: Why don’t school teacher mentors need a qualification in mentoring? Carl Wilkinson ABSTRACT Background/purpose – Teacher recruitment and retention is a major issue for sustaining and growing an educational system and nurturing and supporting teachers through all stages of their career in the form of mentoring is recognized as an important factor in retaining teachers. The current English Government’s ‘golden thread’ of documentation for a teacher career stipulates a mentor for life, this study asks whether a qualification to practice mentoring should be mandated. Materials/methods – This is a case study, the ethnographic qualitative data is analysed and interpreted through a Miles et al (2020) display structure. Seven practicing teacher mentors were interviewed in their own school places, separately. The interviews were recorded, the participants were not prompted and their responses are presented in full Results – This study found that none of the participants hold recognized mentoring accredited qualification. Literature shows that other professions value further qualifications which are used as proof of expert knowledge through theoretical study and reflection. Conclusion – It is suggested that application of the intent to provide all teachers with a mentor through their whole career through an ad-hoc cottage industry of volunteer mentors is unsustainable and not commensurate with a professional body. Keywords – mentoring, qualification, motivation, intrinsic, extrinsic