THE NEXUS BETWEEN MENTORING BEHAVIOUR AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT AMONG TEACHERS

THE NEXUS BETWEEN MENTORING BEHAVIOUR AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT AMONG TEACHERS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background to the Study

Mentoring is a technique that promotes learning and growth, thereby increasing or improving performance for an individual, a group of people, or a business. Mentoring’s primary goal is to assist and encourage individuals to manage and regulate their learning in order to maximize their productivity, potential, personal skills, and performance, as well as to be the person they were born to be (Parsloe and Wray, 2020). Mentoring has its roots in Greek mythology, specifically the story of “Mentor in Homer’s Odyssey.” The term “mentor” has come to mean “trustworthy adviser, friend, teacher, counselor, and wise person.” Words like student, protégé, learner, and mentee are used to describe people who are led or mentored on the other side of the divide. Every story There are always two sides to every story. Mentorship encompasses the mentor-mentee relationship as well. According to Cutterbuck (2020), mentoring has only recently emerged as an important issue in academic circles, necessitating inquiry and experimentation. Mentoring is being introduced and used in educational institutions all over the world, according to Cutterbuck. This is due to the fact that mentoring encompasses many aspects of the educational sector, ranging from peer mentoring in school to assisting with bullying concerns to professional development for teachers, administrators, and support staff. As a result, defining the term “mentoring” is difficult because most scholars and researchers have conflated mentoring with coaching and counseling as guiding techniques. There appears to be considerable misunderstanding about the true purpose of mentorship. This is due to how the concept evolved.

North America has a higher per capita income than the rest of Europe. The term “protégé,” for example, refers to a mentor relationship in which the learner is younger, less powerful, and naive, and appears to be guided and led by an older, more powerful, senior, and experienced person who is also an expert. (Oti, 2019)

However, there is no official mentoring program in Nigerian secondary schools; instead, informal mentoring predominates. This is a situation in which a senior member of staff selects another person on an informal basis to mentor or guide him/her on the path to furthering one’s career as a teacher. This individual is a newly qualified or newly employed teacher who has recently graduated from the school system and is unfamiliar with the complexities of the educational system.

the profession of teaching (Uzomah, 2018).

Individuals who have been mentored (newly qualified instructors) see the mentorship system as a positive development. This is because they see mentoring as a tool for professional development. Mentors and mentees interact nicely as well. This is evident in their interactions as well as the apparent esprit de corps that develops between the director (mentor) and the directed (the mentee). Because there is no formal mentoring program in the Nigerian secondary school system, most mentored students see mentoring as a type of assistance from an older teacher that should not be abused, according to Ayomide (2015).

As a result, they appear to welcome the change and see it as an opportunity to advance their careers as teachers. The majority of mentees see their mentor (s)

as experts and knowledgeable advisers who guard them against making mistakes in their chosen professions (Adeleke, 2016). The relationship that develops between the mentor and the mentee significantly contributes to positive outcomes in the mentoring process. This is because the mentor-mentee relationship encourages the mentor to have a good attitude in directing and teaching the mentee so that at the end of the mentoring process, he/she (the mentee) becomes a better professional person, which goes a long way in enhancing and improving the mentee’s skills and professionalism, who is regarded as the newly qualified teacher employed to teach (Adekoya, 2020).

For new teachers, Abel (2015) identified several mentor roles. There were positions like father figure, support system, guide, counselor, scaf folder, and role model. developed. This demonstrated that mentors serve as surrogate academic parents, guiding their mentees to do the right thing and instilling professionalism in them. They serve as role models by taking on the roles that their mentees hope to fill in the future. Mentors’ responsibilities include assisting young, newly hired teachers in effectively completing tasks and mentoring new employees based on their extensive expertise in the field of teaching. According to Burgess and Shelton (2017), mentors’ roles include identifying mentoring starting points, mentoring with the goal of achieving growth and professional development in the workplace, and measuring the mentee’s degree of development and or advancement. Williams (2018) also conducted a successful study on mentoring relationships in secondary schools. The following aspects of mentoring were highlighted in the study:

Supporting, actively teaching, guiding, providing knowledge, supplying practical techniques, providing feedback on lessons, and providing unambiguous assessments of practice are all examples of relationships. Maintaining connections, according to Williams, is critical for mentors and mentees to achieve their goals. According to Rowley (2019), important characteristics of a “good mentor” include dedication, recognition of the newly hired teacher’s role, providing instructional support, being competent with interpersonal skills, demonstrating continuous learning, and transmitting hope and optimism. Rowley went on to say that in order to be a good mentor, the mentor must view the mentee as someone who needs to be directed, which is accomplished through instructional aid and effective communication that fosters hope and optimism. Without communication and feedback, the mentor-mentee relationship may not be amicable or robust.

1.2 Problem Expression

The value of the mentor-mentee relationship in the teaching profession cannot be overstated. This is because a lack of mentoring between the mentor (experienced teacher) and the mentee (newly hired teacher) results in poor performance and productivity of the newly hired teacher, who lacks the wherewithal to carry out the teaching job due to a lack of mentoring relationship. According to Udoyen (2021), if there is no mentoring relationship between the mentor and the mentee, the newly hired teacher (the mentee) does not understand the complexities of the teaching position. When a newly hired school employee is not effectively directed and counseled by an experienced mentor (teacher), he or she performs poorly.

below expectations, resulting in low productivity and, as a result, poor academic achievement of students, is the primary cause of Nigeria’s current low educational standards. Due to the aforementioned issues, an investigation into the nature of mentoring relationships and professional development among newly certified teachers in Nigerian public secondary schools was conducted.

1.3 The Study’s Objectives

The primary goal of this study is to investigate the relationship between mentoring behavior and career development among teachers. Other specific goals include:

i. To determine whether experienced teachers and newly hired teachers in Lagos State secondary schools engage in exit mentoring.

ii. Determine whether mentoring behavior in secondary schools correlates with teacher professional development.

iii. Determine whether teachers’ abilities and qualities are a factor.

of a successful mentoring program in secondary schools.

iv. Determine whether gender differences in teacher professional development in secondary schools are significantly related.

1.5 Research Theories

In this study, the following hypotheses will be developed and tested:

HO1: In secondary schools, mentoring behavior does not correlate with teacher professional development.

HO2: There is no relationship between successful mentoring programs in secondary schools and teachers’ skills and qualities.

HO3: Gender differences in secondary school teacher professional development are not significantly related.

1.6. Importance of the Research

This research will be extremely beneficial to teachers, students, the government, and future studies. Teachers will benefit from the study’s findings and recommendations because they will gain insight into how to carry out their jobs in the school. It will allow teachers to be more productive in their day-to-day duties of teaching and learning. Many teachers will be oriented in the art of teaching as a result of this study, knowing full well that the way they teach will affect students’ academic achievement in schools. It will also assist new teachers in understanding the significance of relationships and teamwork in the classroom. Students would benefit from the study because it will help them understand that their teachers are expected to be exemplary if their teaching experiences would be of great benefit to the child or student. Students would be able to benefit from the study’s findings and recommendations. Identify “cheating” teachers and notable teachers in the school system. Students will also learn from this study that they need to be taught by trained and experienced teachers if they want to excel in their academic careers. The findings and recommendations of this study will be useful to both the government and school authorities in that they will help them understand the role mentoring relationships play in an ideal school setting. This is because there will be more teaching effectiveness in the Nigerian school system if teachers have a good mentoring relationship. Finally, the study will contribute to the body of existing literature and serve as a resource for students and scholars.

who wishes to pursue additional studies in a related field

1.6 The Study’s Scope

The scope of this study is limited to assessing educational resource utilization and control in secondary schools. The study was limited to selected secondary schools in Ebonyi State’s Uwana local government area.

1.7 Study Restrictions

The researchers encountered minor constraints while conducting the study, as with any human endeavor. The significant constraint was the scarcity of literature on the subject because it is a new discourse, so the researcher incurred more financial expenses and spent more time sourcing for relevant materials, literature, or information and in the data collection process, which is why the researcher resorted to a limited choice of sources.

The sample size was limited to secondary schools in Ebonyi State’s Uwana local government area. As a result, the findings of this study cannot be generalized to other secondary schools in Nigeria. Furthermore, the researcher’s involvement in this study while also working on other academic projects will impede maximum dedication to the research. Nonetheless, despite the constraints encountered during the research, all factors were minimized in order to provide the best results and make the research a success.

1.8 Terms Definition

The following operational terms will be defined in this study:

Relationship of Mentoring: This is the relationship that exists between the mentor (old teachers) and the mentee (the newly appointed teachers).

Professional Development: The process by which teachers or workers in any organization are trained and developed.

as well as retraining procedures.

Newly Hired Teachers: This is a new teacher in a school system. He or she is a newly hired teacher in either primary or secondary school.

A mentor is someone who mentors others. He or she could be an experienced and trained teacher who advises or counsels newly hired teachers in a school.

A mentee is someone who is mentored. He or she could be a new teacher in a primary or secondary school who requires the direction, counseling, and guidance of an experienced educator.