Prescription and Practice: A Small-Scale, Democratic Evaluation of Mentoring Provision on a Higher Education Teacher Training Programme

Mentoring is generally perceived to be an important aspect of initial teacher education. However, the quality of provision is variable, shaped considerably by societal and political conditions. The aim of this democratic evaluation was to look beyond a prescribed view of mentoring to examine how it was understood by different practitioners on a higher education teacher training programme, the range of collective, routinised activities undertaken and the nature of interaction in the mentoring relationship. The findings suggest that the success of the practice depends largely on the extent to which internal and external power dynamics affect the mentoring relationship.