Teachers’ voices: developing as mentoring and coaching teaching professionals

This paper explores the views of teachers who have been active in mentoring trainee teacher, teaching assistants and newly qualified teachers. It is located in the UK context of the new professional standards which have placed coaching and mentoring as central in the Threshold standards and the standards for Excellent teacher. The training of teaching assistants in the UK has undergone considerable change linked to workforce reform in primary schools. We examine the role that class teachers play as mentors in the training of teaching assistants on two types of programmes operating in England leading to Higher Level Teaching Assistant Professional Status. It considers the qualities required for mentoring teaching assistants compared to mentoring trainee teachers. The views and perspectives of a group of 34 school teachers who have carried out a mentor role for both a trainee primary teacher and a primary teaching assistant are analysed. The reserach aims to identify the common skills, strategies and approaches used by the school-based mentors and identify the perceived tensions and challenges facing these mentors. This paper builds upon two years of research by the authors. The research uses a mainly qualitative and evaluative approach that includes the use of interviewing and documentary evidence