Fiona Chambers Kathleen Armour Sinead Luttrell Frank Herold Deirdre Brennan Walter Bleakley

Internationally, the development of mentoring in schools in conjunction with university- school partnerships has become a key feature of re-designed teacher education over the last decade (Conway et al., 2009, p.118)

Mentoring involves primarily listening with empathy, sharing experience and learning (usually mutually), professional friendship, developing insight through reflection, being a sounding board, encouraging (Gardiner, 1998, p.77)

To produce a Position Statement on “Effective Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) Mentoring”

Qualitative approach Three case studies

University College Cork  2 University Tutors ◦ 2 female  5 Mentor teachers ◦ 1 male, 4 female

University of Ulster, Jordanstown  2 University Tutors ◦ 1 male, 1 female  2 Mentor teachers ◦ 1 male, 1 female

University of Birmingham  2 University Tutors ◦ 1 male, 1 female  3 Mentors ◦ 2 male, 1 female

 Synchronous ◦ Open profile questionnaires ◦ On-line Seminar  Asynchronous ◦ On-line Discussion Forum

 Constructivist Grounded Theory (Charmaz, 2009) ◦ Making systematic comparisons throughout inquiry ◦ Interacting with data, codes, and categories ◦ Doing analytic writing from the start i.e. memo-writing ◦ Making early links between the empirical world ◦ theoretical ideas and checking them theoretical sampling.

 Within the school-university partnership, the triadic relationship of Mentor-University Tutor-Pre-service PE teacher must be fostered and valued to ensure a robust and coordinated approach to pre-service teacher education.

 The purpose of the mentor-mentee relationship is the engagement in professional sharing which should continue beyond the teaching practice experience.

The Mentor should provide support and guidance to the pre-service PE teacher both professionally and personally.

The Mentor should ensure a safe learning space for the pre-service PE teacher where he/she is free to take risks and explore praxis in a variety of contexts.

Mentors need to be selected on the basis of suitability i.e. disposition and expertise and must be trained to mentor pre-service teachers effectively.

Mentee-centred Programme (Zachary, 2000) Develops mentee as a person-pedagogue (Armour & Fernandez-Balboa, 2001) Mentors need the right expertise and disposition Mentors must be trained in specific pedagogical strategies for this role

He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. (William Butler Yeats)

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