Growing through mentoring: An activity based inquiry into mentor teachers knowledge and practices.

This aim of this project is to identify and analyse the professional development benefits experienced by teachers when mentoring student teachers during the practicum.

Most studies on the practicum focus on what benefits are provided to student teachers.Yet, what mentor teachers and schools gain from hosting these periods is not well understood.

This gap in the research literature highlights the novelty of this research and its significance for adding new knowledge to teacher development research. Activity theory and ‘communities of practice’ will provide a conceptual framework for the study.

Through a predominantly quantitative research design, mentor teachers in all Swedish primary teacher education programs will be surveyed through a mixed-item questionnaire.

Document analysis will also be carried out in the initial phase of the study to analyze the policies and principles established both at national and institutional levels for mentor teacher-student teacher relationship.

Data will be subjected to quantitative and qualitative analysis to offer both generalizations and in-depth descriptions mentor growth.

The results are expected to contribute to establishing more effective mentorship processes and activities for further professional growth for practicing teachers.

Finally, the findings will offer recommendations to improve the collaboration between universities and schools in relation to making the practicum more meaningful for all teachers’ professional development.