Abstract
While new regimes of accreditation have sought to standardise the length of pre-service teachers’ professional experience placements across jurisdictions, the nature and quality of those placements continue to vary greatly from setting to setting. Research into generic mentoring situations has identified mentor–mentee relationships and the quality of feedback provided by school-based mentors as key factors mediating the experiences of pre-service teachers during their practicum. However, research into mentoring in particular disciplines is uneven. This chapter uses narrative-based case studies to investigate contrasting experiences of two secondary pre-service EAL teachers and their mentor teachers during their practicums in Victoria, Australia. The study identifies particular mentoring practices and relational work evident during the pre-service teachers’ practicums and shows how these practices contributed to or hindered their professional learning and identity development during that practicum.
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- 1.
Across the world, different curriculums in different jurisdictions use different terms to describe particular forms of TESOL. The terms used in this chapter include English as an Additional Language (EAL); English as a Second Language (ESL); and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). EAL is the term used in the Australian Curriculum (also in the UK and Ireland) to refer to the teaching of English to children whose first language is not English.
- 2.
All names of schools, pre-service teachers and mentor teachers are pseudonyms.
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Nguyen, M., Parr, G. (2018). Mentoring Practices and Relationships During the EAL Practicum in Australia: Contrasting Narratives. In: Fitzgerald, A., Parr, G., Williams, J. (eds) Re-imagining Professional Experience in Initial Teacher Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0815-4_6
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