Veiledning av nyutdannede førskolelærere. Hvilke forventninger til veiledning av nyutdannede førskolelærere gir veiledere uttrykk for?

Abstract

The research question in the dissertation is: "What expectations to mentoring of recently qualified pre-school teachers do the mentors express? ". The question has been put into a social, theoretical and an empiric perspective. The social perspective in the dissertation has its basis in a departmental report, St. melding 16 (2001 - 2002): " The Quality reform- a new plan for teacher education - diverse - demanding - relevant", which emphasizes mentoring as a method for improving higher education in Norway. A result of St. meld. 16 was the initiation of " The enterprise mentoring of recently qualified teachers in kindergarten and schools", which has been initiated and financed by the department of education and research with the intention to hand recently qualified teachers in the first year of their career. The department also emphasizes systematical mentoring of the recently qualified with the intention of improving the relationship between the practice and the educational institutions. The theoretical perspective of the research is inspired by constructivist researchers like Søndergaard (1996) and Sundli (2001).The theory part debates social-constructivism. Various strategies and methods of mentoring that have characterised the education of mentors are presented as basis for the empiric research. Strategies are presented and discussed and the terms discourse, language, power and the creation of opinions are presented and debated and then used as tools of analysis in the conclusion. The empiric research was carried out in the spring of 2004 in three different counties. Three groups totalling 13 persons participated. The metod used is qualitative focus interview. The results show that the mentors distinguish between mentoring of personell in kindergarten and mentoring of recently qualified in particular. When mentoring personell in kindergarten they build their statements on rhetoric, claiming that mentoring leads to development and learning. When the mentors talk about mentoring of recently qualified pre- school teachers they paint a picture that the recently qualified need help and support during the difficult transition between education and work. The mentors express a cognitive and individual tradition when talking about mentoring of recently qualified. The mentors are only to some extent thinking of the recently qualified as a resource for development in the kindergarten. The picture of the recently qualified pre-school teacher as being in need of help is what distinctly appears in my research of mentoring.