Challenges encountered by mentor teachers when mentoring pre-service teachers during teaching practice

Abstract

As part of their duties, in-service teachers are expected to provide mentorship to pre-service teachers placed by teacher training institutions in their schools. As a result, some mentor teachers encounter various challenges when mentoring pre-service teachers. Therefore, this qualitative study investigates the challenges faced by mentor teachers during the mentoring of pre-service teachers in teaching practice. This study is situated within the interpretive paradigm, and a multiple case study was adopted as its research design. The snowball sampling technique was used to select twelve participants from primary schools in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the data collected through open-ended questionnaires. The study's key findings indicate that mentor teachers face numerous challenges when mentoring pre-service teachers. Among these challenges is the lack of content and pedagogical knowledge among pre-service teachers. Furthermore, some pre-service teachers are reluctant to accept guidance from mentor teachers. Based on the findings, this study recommends that teacher training institutions work closely with mentor teachers to mitigate these challenges.