How mentors, principals, and novice teachers view the role of a mentor

In-service teacher training represents a sensitive period in the professional development of a novice teacher, and the novice teacher mentor plays an important role in this. To successfully complete this duty the aptitude of the mentor for the specific challenges of mentorship is of utmost importance. This article presents the results of an extensive project Partnership of Faculties and Schools, carried out at the Faculty of Pedagogy, University of Ljubljana. The study participants were 361 novice teachers, 331 mentors and 77 head teachers. The authors show how mentors, novice teachers, and headmasters rate the capability of mentors for the specific role of mentoring as well as the way that mentors and headmasters judge the need to educate mentors for carrying out the task of mentorship. The study revealed an interesting fact that novice teachers rate the capability of their mentors for the specific duties of mentoring more highly than mentors rate themselves.