Self-authorship in the Mentoring Process at Pre-school Education Institutions

Created on 28th February 2022

Conference: The European Conference on Education (ECE2022)
Title: Self-authorship in the Mentoring Process at Pre-school Education Institutions
Stream: Teaching Experiences, Pedagogy, Practice & Praxis
Presentation Type: Virtual Poster Presentation
Authors:
Nijolė Čiučiulkienė, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania

Abstract:

There are relatively few scientific sources, which help to reveal the phenomenon of self-authorship in the mentoring process. The authors of this research strive to find the answers to the emerging research questions: what are the preconditions for the emergence of self-authorship in mentoring; what are the interrelationships between these processes. The 12 pre-school teachers who worked as mentors in their institutions participated in the research. Referring to constructive development theory as theoretical background, we conducted semi-structured interviews using an interpretative research approach. After thematic analysis of the interview data, the 2 major themes and 5 sub themes have emerged. Pre-school educators perceive self-authorship as a cognitive journey, i.e. the process of creating their own personal qualities and self as a mentor via helping others, as well as cognition of the young educator's motivation to work in pedagogy and develop themselves at the same time. Self-authorship manifests an informal assistance to mentees. This support presupposes the need for collegial learning, sharing of experience, that promotes the overall growth of the whole teaching staff. The findings of this study clearly express the need of a deeper analysis of how self-authorship contributes to the formation of a new role of a teacher–mentor in pre-school education. It is also necessary to explore the propensity of pre-school educators towards collegial learning in a more detailed way, the need for which we have unambiguously identified in this study. Finally, the study contributes to the understanding of the critical concept of self-authorship in professional contexts.