Like Water Off a Duck’s Back: Interrogating the Mentoring Practices in the University of Zimbabwe Post-Graduate Teacher Training Programme

Abstract

This study reports on the effectiveness of mentoring practices in the graduate diploma in education (Grad DE) programme at the University of Zimbabwe. Traditionally, the programme was coordinated and supervised solely by university lecturers with school-based personnel playing peripheral roles. However, the university introduced school-based mentoring for student teachers on teaching practice (TP) in 2002. Since then, no attempt has been made to assess the effectiveness of this programme in training post-graduate teachers at the University of Zimbabwe, except for a longitudinal study which ran from 2005 to 2017. This paper, therefore, reports the findings of this study. Information gathered through key informant interviews, student teacher questionnaires and document analysis shows that, as before, the mentor’s contributions receive little recognition from university supervisors. The triadic relationship between student teacher, school-based mentor and college supervisor presupposed by the mentoring paradigm does not exist. Consequently, the interaction remains, as per tradition, between the university supervisor and the student teacher. This study reveals that this paradigm shift has not resulted in the recognition of the mentor’s efforts. If anything, their efforts are of no effect in a manner analogous to the proverbial pouring of water on a duck’s back. The study proffers macro-economic conditions like hyper-inflation, economic meltdown and other factors like lack of will or initiative, vitiate the successful implementation of initial teacher preparation curriculum innovations like school-based mentoring of student teachers. Following this, the study recommends that the university should not burden the so-called mentors by giving them responsibilities which do not count in the final teaching practice grading. If the mentorship programme is to serve its purpose, the department should look into ways of facilitating mentoring practices given that this model seems to be functional in teachers’ colleges.