This blog post was written by Stefanie Green.
About the author of the post:
Stefanie has been a teacher of German, Spanish and French for the past 20 years. She is Head of German at Farlingaye High School in Suffolk and the Modern Languages Subject Lead for East SCITT.
Stefanie works as a SCITT mentor and supports and coaches teachers of German in her role as German Expert Mentor, a scheme run by the Goethe Institut London.
In 2016, Stefanie was awarded the German Teacher Award.
When being interviewed for my current role, Subject Lead for MFL for EAST SCITT, a local training provider in Suffolk, I remember saying that I could not think of anything more exciting than making a contribution to training the MFL teachers of the future. I was certainly enthusiastic and I really wanted this job, but perhaps I was also a little naïve!
I had worked with children and teenagers for 18 years, but as I celebrated my appointment, it dawned on me that at that point I actually knew very little about what it means to train, develop and mentor adults!
Since working in that role, I have made hundreds of small mistakes, learned a lot and never changed my mind about wanting to do the job. This is in spite of many difficulties and challenges - some of which are undoubtedly beyond my control.
Training teachers remains one of the areas of my work I feel most excited about (with apologies to my line managers - Wednesday break duty near the toilets is not one of them!).
Alongside my Subject Lead role, I have also always worked as a mentor, because I enjoy the particular nature of that work. It is intellectually, mentally and emotionally challenging and extremely rewarding.
EAST SCITT has a deliberate policy of working only with mentors who are practising teachers and this is a wise approach. The classroom, the behaviour of the children within it and the education system in which teachers work are, as we all know, subject to constant change. It is easy to forget the reality of teacher workload caused by the competing pressures of marking, planning and the management of resources and data, when no longer in the classroom. The UK government’s guidance on ‘addressing workload in initial teacher education’ issued in 2018 is an excellent place to start when considering how to manage the workload of the trainee teachers you mentor.
Following a coaching model, at EAST SCITT, “mentors […] employ suitable mentoring approaches to suit individual trainee needs at particular points in their development including a dialogic approach and deliberate mentoring approach.”
This means listening to trainees, observing carefully and without preconceptions and finding individual, creative and evidence-based solutions to problems specific to each trainee’s circumstances. There cannot be any tick lists - a flexible, dynamic approach is key!
As you gradually guide the trainee teacher through the process of turning from complete novice to beginning expert, you will have to adapt alongside them and keep on top of change.
Openness, transparency and kind, but direct communication are essential, when developing mutual trust between mentor and mentee. Sharing information about processes, such as your approach to creating the trainee’s timetable, expectations around punctuality and how and when you as a mentor can be contacted by the trainee are essential basics. At the end of each mentor meeting, it is useful to ask your mentee to summarise for you, in their own words what they have understood, as this ensures that misunderstandings are kept to a minimum. It also allows for a timely opportunity to discuss what could otherwise develop into unhelpful and unproductive conflict later.
Additionally, the mentoring relationship requires the mentor to be highly self-aware and reflective at all times. This includes being aware of power imbalances inherent in the process and to actively put measures in place that address these in a constructive and positive way. This can be as simple, as ensuring that mentor and trainee teacher sit side by side during mentor meetings, rather than face to face. It means managing feedback sessions in such a way that they are not top down, but rather conducted through questioning and guided self-evaluation. This allows the trainee to take responsibility for their own actions and to have agency. Trainees can thus to assume the role of an active author, rather than that of a passive participant in a teacher training story written by someone else.
Of similar importance is valuing the skills and experiences the trainee brings with them, both on a personal and professional level. After all, many trainee teachers are career-changers who find themselves in a new and unfamiliar environment. This can be unsettling, especially when an attempt at getting 32 year 9 students excited about the perfect tense on a Friday afternoon does not go according to plan!
Recently, a trainee offered to run yoga sessions for staff, temporarily flipping the role of novice and expert (I realised what a yoga novice I was, when waking up with extremely sore muscles the next day!).
There is another factor to consider here, which is specific to mentoring work in our subject area - MFL. A large proportion of trainee teachers do not have personal experience of the UK education system. According to the Initial Teacher Training Census 2020/2021 only 66% of all trainee teachers of MFL who started training in 2020 were UK nationals, compared to 92% of all entrants. Post-Brexit immigration laws will have had an impact on figures, but the issue remains relevant. Many of the trainee teachers I work with completed their schooling abroad in education systems that look very different to the one in which they now train and will work and will not be able to draw on personal experiences. In addition, there are linguistic hurdles to consider, as trainee teachers will need to manage behaviour in English, a language that is not their first, or dominant language. This can quickly lead to cognitive overload. I am personally one of these teachers and have only just recently recovered from the culture shock sustained in 2003, when I turned up for my first PGCE seminar with Dr Boodhoo at the UEA.
Let’s briefly return to the issue to workload, which is a major one! According to the government’s own admission “high workload is one of the most commonly cited drivers for teachers leaving the profession and can be a disincentive for potential new teachers to join.”[i]
Workload management should therefore never be an afterthought - it needs to be practically embedded. This includes being reflective and self-critical when it comes to the setting of targets. Setting SMART targets allows trainees to complete a clearly defined set of actions, rather than working towards some abstract and ultimately unachievable goal.
Most trainees come to the training with extremely high expectations around the sort of teacher they want to be. In some cases, they put extreme pressure on themselves to be ‘perfect’. In those cases, I would argue that it is the mentor’s role to build confidence to ensure trainees develop an attitude of doing the best possible work in challenging circumstances, in short, to value progress over perfection and to become, what Oliver Burkeman calls an ‘imperfectionist’.
Just so I am not misunderstood: Becoming an imperfectionist does not mean ‘dumbing down’ or thinking “That’ll do” - it’s about developing an honest and realistic idea of what is possible and to then go about relentlessly and enthusiastically doing what’s possible.
Finally, mentoring is ultimately knowing when to intervene and when to take a step back. Like in all student-teacher relationships, you, as the teacher and expert will want to make yourself redundant in your role as soon as possible.
The focus of the mentor will naturally be on the trainee’s professional development and well-being, but what about the mentor?
When mentors are under pressure, because a trainee struggles and needs additional support, because they demand more in terms of time and attention than the mentor is reasonably able to give, because the pressures of their other teaching commitments take their toll, it is important to remember that mentors need to look after their own well-being too.
This will involve the setting of boundaries. Before take-off, plane passengers are also reminded that in an emergency they should fit their own oxygen mask first before helping others. This is excellent advice for mentors too. You need to be fighting fit to fulfil your role!
With thanks to Mena, Jasmin, Isabel, Shannon, Céline, Judit, Zeynep, Mariella, Henning, Nina, Sila, Jale, Johanna, Victoria, Nicholas, Hendrijke, Eva, Luisa, Laura, Fionn, Marcus, Maya, Maike, Oona, Fabienne, Nadine, Katharina, Lisa-Marie, Lena, Anna, Bastian, Joshua and Amalija for teaching me so much of what I know about mentoring.
Further reading:
[i] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/addressing-workload-in-initial-teacher-education-ite. Accessed: January 2025
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