Abstract
There have been constant debates on how to improve school leadership in South Africa. This has emanated from numerous research findings locally and internationally that demonstrate that schools will be as effective as the people who are at their helm. The national Zenex/Advanced Certificate in Education research findings have also claimed that mentoring of school leaders has great potential to sustain effective schools. The idea of formal mentoring is fairly new in South African schools but its popularity is growing widely.
This qualitative study focused on the experiences of five mentors who mentored five principals. There was only one historically white school in the study. Two of these principals are principals in historically black schools, one from a rural school and one from a farm school – all these schools are situated in KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa. The results demonstrate that whilst the mentors highlighted room for improvement in the current incipient practice of formal mentoring, they displayed optimism for the future of schools whose leaders are mentored. They also maintained that effective mentoring builds confidence and commitment among school leaders.
Introduction
Hudson (2013) argues that there are strong synergies between mentoring and inspirational leadership. Furthermore, he explains that inspirational leaders will, amongst other skills, be able to communicate organisational vision and goals. Currently, mentoring appears to be taking centre stage as many organisations are beginning to realise its potential in growing the organisation. Moon (2014) views the mentoring process as crucial in innovation. Furthermore, Moon also contends that when members of an organisation are valued and mentored as leaders, they become empowered to be innovators in their organisations. Today’s schools need innovators otherwise they will not cope with the constant global developments in education. Leaders who have been mentored effectively are able to nurture others, motivate and equip them with professional skills to sustain effective schools. Mentoring need not be reserved for leaders only though, for all members of organisations may need mentoring. ‘Thriving organisations recognise that every member leads and follows, directs and innovates, responds and creates in the context of relationships’ (Moon, 2014: 30). Mentoring in schools is practised to improve the quality of teaching as well as the enhancement of pupil achievement.
Sheils and Rutherford (2014) point out that the mentoring process increases teacher knowledge and alters practice so that pupils have strong learning opportunities. These authors, who conducted a study in poverty stricken schools, found that when teachers in these circumstances are mentored they become knowledgeable and are able to ensure the poor pupils ‘have better and more realistic chance of defying the odds’ (Sheils and Rutherford, 2014: 6). All parents irrespective of social class want their children to succeed in school. Schools, especially South African schools, are currently undergoing constant changes with the recent adoption of the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS). CAPS is a revision of the original Curriculum 2005 which has been evolving over the past two decades. Change frequently leads to resistance and confusion even among leaders; CAPS is also experiencing this resistance from teachers. Zoller (2014) writes about the need to love change as well as to lead it, and he also points out that frameworks that cultivate leaders who graduate ready to lead are crucial.
The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) (2007) report has an apt title: Good principals aren’t born – They are mentored. This report also summarises the competencies for improving schools and learner achievement stating that effective principals possess: a comprehensive understanding of school and classroom practices that contribute to learner achievement; the ability to work with teachers and others to design and implement a system for continuous learner achievement; and the ability to provide the necessary support for staff to carry out sound school, curriculum and instructional practices. (SREB, 2007: 86)
In search of improving learner achievement and teacher commitment, schools need principals who have the above capabilities. South African schools require novel effective leadership styles. Today’s effective leaders will be those who are keen lifelong learners and readers; they also have the ability to nurture professionalism in themselves as well as in their colleagues. The demands on school leaders have become so immense that leaders need to understand their schools in order to lead their teachers towards positive outcomes. Mentoring is fairly new in the South African education system having been largely popularised by the introduction of the national Department of Basic Education’s Advanced Certificate in Education – School Management and Leadership (ACE-SML) programme. 1 The ACE-SML is a two year part-time programme meant to equip school leaders with effective leadership and management practices. The programme’s modules introduce various frameworks from which leaders can learn, and mentoring is included as a mandatory component.
Davis (2014) argues that effective teachers can be retained in the profession when there is meaningful, structured professional development. In the professional relationship between the mentor and mentee, the mentors have been described as change agents and educational leaders (Thornton, 2014). Their support for mentees is crucial for the professional development of the mentees. ‘Mentors make a commitment to value the protégé’s achievements and encourage the protégé to be more innovative. They also model the behaviour that newcomers are expected to adopt’ (Dow, 2014: 105). Furthermore, Dow states that mentors are also critical to successful socialisation and that mentees should perceive the organisation through the mentors’ eyes because supportive mentors represent the organisation’s vision. This study acknowledges the immense role played by effective mentors and thus sought to answer the following research questions: How do mentors perceive their role in improving schools? Which aspects does a mentoring relationship need to cover in order to change schools for the better?
Mentoring as part of the life-long learning journey
Fullan (2001) espouses the need for schools to support life-long learning for both pupils and teachers. He also points out that for a school to encourage learning as it builds a learning organisation teachers, principals, parents and pupils must all be involved in shaping their schools. Furthermore, he postulates that when teachers are life-long learners, professional learning occurs. It becomes a necessary change management strategy as teachers develop as critical and reflective practitioners. Fullan (2001) argues that leaders need to build social capital within their teams and model life-long learning, personal persistence and resilience. Ray (2013) concurs with Fullan (2011) when he contends that we must not overlook the needs of teachers. Ray adds that good teachers are those who see themselves as life-long learners; those who always reflect on their teaching as education innovations are introduced.
Mentoring and professional learning will provide this life-long learning. Ray also points out that Fullan (2011) explains that teachers need the opportunity to learn from one another on an ongoing basis. Hallinger (1998), like Fullan (2001), maintains that school leaders should use new capacities and shape a school culture that supports staff, for life-long learning is among these capacities. For Fullan (1993) life-long learning forms part of the moral purpose that provides teachers with the tools that will prepare them to engage in productive change. We need mentorship in schools because effective mentorship leads to effective change agents. Fullan (1993) declares that effective moral purpose is vital for change initiatives; change agency without moral purpose is change for the sake of change.
Good mentors and improved practice
Teachers need to be constantly supported in being reflective practitioners. Their work, though, may be hectic; thus they fail to make use of the benefits of reflective practice. Teacher mentors can help support school leaders as well as classroom teaching in general. In an effective mentoring relationship there are benefits for the mentees and their schools, as well as for school leadership. Dow (2014) points out that mentors derive crucial benefits which include renewed commitment as well as advancing the work of the organisation.
Rowley (1999) underscores a number of qualities that good mentors need to have. According to him the good mentor is: committed to the role of mentoring; accepting of the beginning teacher; skilled at providing instructional support; effective in different interpersonal contexts; a model of continuous learning; and a communicator of hope and optimism.
Some of these qualities are shared by Villani (2006) who enumerates the following as good mentor qualities: positively disposed to serve colleagues’ growth; culturally competent and proficient; secure enough to value the different and evolving leadership styles of new principals; committed to promoting a new principal’s reflection; generous and willing to share resources and ideas; lifelong learners; and an effective communicator.
All these qualities demonstrate how serious a role the mentors take up. Over the past few years much research has been conducted in the area of developing teacher mentors (Bush et al., 2011b; Moorosi, 2012; Msila, 2013). There is a growing realisation that school mentors need to be effectively trained if they are to build effective schools. However, it should be noted that mentor choice is crucial in ensuring that the mentor–mentee relationship is worthwhile and meaningful. Mentors who are not suitable will stall professional development and this has implications not only for the individual mentee but for their school operations as well. Daresh and Arrowsmith (2003) posit that finding a mentor is the single most powerful thing that a principal can do to enhance personal survival and effectiveness in any school.
Fletcher (2000) argues that some teachers cannot and should not be selected to become mentors. He also highlights that it may be true that every teacher is potentially a mentor, but not all teachers can necessarily be effective mentors. The Wallace Foundation (2007) underscores the flaw of not holding mentors accountable and not training them seriously. This foundation’s report also stresses the need for a serious commitment to the training of mentors. Among the necessary skills that mentors need are understanding of goal setting, active listening and conflict management. Moreover, high quality training for mentors also prepares them to provide and receive feedback that encourages self-reflection, is not judgemental and aims at moving the mentee from dependence to independence (The Wallace Foundation, 2007).
In my recent research I developed what I refer to as a mentoring cycle (Msila, 2014). A number of mentors observed used common steps in the mentoring process. Although numerous mentors did not have any formally formulated steps, the following stages were apparent.
The mentors emphasised the various stages differently as they were informed by their philosophies and the needs of the mentees. The stages can be briefly described as follows:
Presentation
Mentors explaining their philosophies and experience.
Mentees describing the nature of their schools.
Understanding the school dynamics
Mentees painting pictures of their schools.
Mentors probing.
Explicating expectations
Mentees describing their expectations from the relationship.
Mentors take note.
Sharing challenges and successes
Mentees narrating their story.
Mentees talking about their philosophies.
Duo identifying gaps
Interactive sessions with the parties searching for answers on how to face challenges or how to make good schools better.
Implementing some suggestions, mainly by the mentees.
Evaluation
Mentors evaluating the mentoring effects.
Mentees assessing of their school practice.
The mentees who were in ‘failing’ schools tended to shift blame when they related the state of their schools. Uninvolved parents, unwilling teachers and rowdy pupils were the reasons their schools were not working and school management could be blamed only for a few problems. Following the stages, the mentees were probed to speak openly about the challenges in their schools and these stages were crucial and the more confident the mentees, the more they talked about challenges and charted solutions for their schools. Effective mentors enabled self-reflection that enabled mentees to be critical of their practice thus enabling them to identify the gaps in their schools as they explored ways of implementing some of the mentors’ suggestions.
The success of the mentoring cycle stages is dependent on the mutual trust between the mentor and mentee. From the beginning where the mentee presents facets of his/her school, a rapport needs to be established; otherwise honest reflection will not happen and the process of mentoring will be a farce because mentees will not share all. Therefore, working together well is likely to lead to effective mentorship. When the mentor and mentees open up and share their experiences, growth happens. In this way mentoring leads to transformational learning as mentees tend to lead the discussions with mentors showing elements of self-development and self-criticism.
Research methodology
This qualitative study was conducted in the province of KwaZulu-Natal and five participants were mentors at the time of the study. Three of the five mentors came to the schools through invitation from the schools. The mentors in the other two schools, one rural and the other a farm school, were through the advice of the district officials to the respective principals. Four of the participants took part in the original Zenex/ACE research team of mentors in 2007. The ACE has been briefly explained above as the national Department of Education programme whose introduction was in 2007 in five pilot universities. The ACE was offered as a part-time programme for school managers to improve their leadership practice. Mentors were assigned to all the candidates in the programme. Bush et al. (2011a) reported on the various lessons from the pilot universities.
The mentors were interviewed individually and each of them was observed during their mentoring sessions at the various schools. The five participants mainly mentored members of school management teams that consisted of at least two members. However, the researcher’s focus was on the experiences with the school principals. It was useful in collecting the data to use a combination of unstructured observations and interviews. The observations helped the researcher in acquiring collective descriptive information that was analysed qualitatively. Brink (2000) points out that the researcher in unstructured observations attempts to describe events or behaviours as they occur and usually logs and field notes are used to record these behaviours. After conducting the observations and interviews the researcher analysed the data using themes. Table 1 displays the characteristics of the five participants and their schools. All the names are assumed names to ensure anonymity and to conform to the ethical considerations underpinning the study.
Mentor and school characteristics.
At the time of the study the minimum number of months that the mentors had been in their respective schools was six months, as highlighted in Table 1.
The findings
The five participants highlighted a number of obstacles and opportunities relating to mentoring in the schools they were attached to. It was interesting to hear from three of the mentors who maintained that schools are influenced by a number of aspects as to how they fare with regards to the performance of both teachers and pupils. History, the school’s location, teacher motivation and mainly culture are amongst these aspects. The empirical evidence supported this postulation because Apple High School is a high achiever because it had the most motivated teachers in the study. John, who is a mentor in this school, declared that Apple was high achieving not only because teachers are continuously developed, but more so because the teachers are motivated. The mentor also stated that his role as a mentor was only to enhance continuing effective practice in an already highly performing school. Furthermore, this mentor attributed this success to a past history of ‘good leadership and effective, working culture’.
The other extreme, though, is reflected by the rural Mango High School as well as Pine Primary. In both schools there is a high teacher turnover and the mentors state that it frustrates teachers to be inducting new members all the time. Both schools are situated far from the city, one being a farm primary school and the other a rural high school. In both schools ‘teachers are always in transit as they are focusing on the bright lights of the city for employment’. Moreover, in both schools there are a number of unqualified teachers especially in subjects such as mathematics, science and accounting. The mentors in these schools talk about the low morale among staff members as well as helplessness among the mentees. It also appears that, generally, in historically black schools there tends to be a great need for the support of management as there appear to be common challenges that principals experience. These shared challenges include poor parental involvement, weak culture of teaching, pupil absenteeism, and aloofness of district officials as well as lack of material and human resources (Msila, 2011). All mentors stated that their role in these poorly resourced schools included formulating ways of working in spite of these barriers. The mentors also stressed how the socio-economic status of families impacted on the pupils’ education. The mentors concurred that it was likely that the poorer the families the less support they would give to children. When this support lacks, ‘it is likely that the school principals’ goals can flounder’. Yet the mentor in Plum High School told of a school principal whose school currently has 98% black pupils from mainly poor families but whose school is well-run. Plum is a historically Indian school but now has more black pupils mainly from the nearby province of the Eastern Cape. With a motivated team, a moral purpose and effective culture, the school is one of the top performers in KwaZulu-Natal.
It was interesting to note that the mentors in this study followed all the stages highlighted in Figure 1. Furthermore all the mentors appeared to concur that teachers need a moral purpose if they are to engender commitment upon their staff. They spoke of the need to have more transformational leaders who had a moral purpose and commitment. The mentors also agreed that for leadership growth to happen leaders need a moral purpose as well as reflective practice that many mentees lacked. It was the mentees in Apple High School who were used to the reflective practices because of the programmes they run in their school on professional development. One of the exercises they had internalised was to reflect on the day’s work at the end of each day; some would write in diaries as well. As one mentor explained it: …having a moral purpose seems to be the beginning of it all. It is the engine why schools are run. This is where I start when I mentor principals; they need to tell me about their purpose. The question is why are they principals in the first place. This also needs much reflection.
The mentoring cycle (Msila, 2014).
The mentors also linked moral purpose to an improved culture of the school. (The mentors had extensively taught mentees about moral purpose.) They maintained that improving the culture of the school has deep implications for ‘improving standards and closing the gaps between pupils’. Of importance too was the need to magnify the role of all role-players such as parents, district officials and communities.
The mentors shared common aspects that they stressed as important in a mentor–mentee relationship between a mentor and a school management team member. Apart from being reflective practitioners and life-long learners, the mentors contended that effective mentoring programmes would enable mentees to: Manipulate the culture of the school. The mentors acknowledged that almost everything in the school hinges on a culture created by management. One stated that, ‘it takes a principal with a purpose to change a school culture for the better’. Prepare teachers for innovations. Another mentor mentioned the recent changes in Gauteng province, South Africa where the Minister of Education was introducing a paperless classroom (in selected schools) that would exclusively use tablets. ‘Even that would falter when the school leaders are not empowered in digital tools’. See the need to develop themselves continually. The Apple mentor stated that: The trap many principals get into is to think that they are principals now, there is no need for further development – this is a big mistake that some principals make, as a result they stop learning.
The discussion below focuses on enhancement of culture, ongoing professional development and strengthening relationships among the schools’ role-players. These were themes that were teased out after the study’s completion.
Discussion
Enhancing a culture of achievement
The mentors highlighted the need for the mentees to instil a culture of achievement in their schools. It was also interesting to note that even the principal at Apple High School, which is a successful school, pointed out that to maintain that culture of achievement the message needed to be communicated at all times to the staff. John, who was the Apple High School mentor, repeatedly pointed out that ‘Apple is a successful story due to its effective culture which is always evident throughout the organisation’. As a mentor he merely stressed the need to communicate this to new teachers at all times. The culture and school pride ‘is shared by the school’s parents’. The mentors also stated that their mentees demonstrated a need to see their schools as centres of excellence where parents would be proud to send their children. The stories that the mentors heard were varied as these were informed by different contexts; however, what was common in three schools was the desperate need for support by the mentees. They expressed how they felt after being deserted by the Education Department after their appointments as school principals. The Mango High School mentor, Ntuli, pointed out: The principal always looks at his role with trepidation and that is the word he used. He said he never knows who should help him for he sees the district officials through memoranda sent to school. He finds his position at the helm as a very lonely road. In two years as a principal he has seen the district officials thrice in his school. Mr H always sees the need for the district involvement in his school. He inherited a well-functioning school whose team has learnt to run the school with minimum involvement of the Department of Education’s officials. But I agree with him when he says there is a need for a constant reassurance from the officials. He says he has been asked several times to help in workshops on professional development of his peers in the district. Yet he maintains that the officials can do more through their visibility in schools.
Soraya, the Orange Primary School mentor, talked about a need for school principals to be taught independence. The mentor told of how her mentee was very dependent upon her. She said the mentee appeared to want her to be at her school most of the time: I felt bad; it was like running her school. She confessed several times that I have shown her a number of aspects she never thought of in school management. I was surprised at first because I really thought I would not make sense because of two things; I am white and secondly I have always taught in private schools before I retired. But all my mentees appeared to earnestly appreciate my guidance. I have had the most uplifting discussions with my mentees. However, it is the independence that I need to instil more. Teachers can learn success if they learn to be guided by the vision of their schools and not mentors to a large extent.
The mentors also stated that it is the duty of principals to instil a certain desirable culture in a school in order to achieve a certain culture. Supovitz et al. (2014) argue how principals’ work through other school actors, such as teachers, would affect instructional practice and subsequently influence pupil learning. These authors posit, ‘Our findings suggest that principals’ influence is even broader and that principals work through other leaders in schools to influence what goes on inside classrooms’ (Supovitz et al., 2014: 47). Billingsley et al. (2014) declare that school principals are key participants in instilling a culture of change as schools become more effective and inclusive for all pupils. Yet Billingsley et al. (2014) also argue that the majority are not prepared well to address the needs of all pupils, especially those who struggle in school.
School culture helps teachers to be professional in their work and be committed to learner achievement. It encompasses goals, vision and direction desired by role players. Siburian (2013) contends that the role of the teachers is pertinent in the attainment of the school’s goals and the school covers numerous things that need to get support from the principals as instructional leaders. When school leaders and their staff want to achieve certain goals, they merely want to manifest shared values. Siburian (2013: 253) states: Organisational culture is a crucial factor in the achievement of goals due to the assumption that organisations are made up of a collection of people who work together require that organisational culture can be used as standards of behaviour that has been agreed on in the organisation. Organisational culture is a reflection of the organization that distinguishes it from other organisations… Every organisation has a particular culture which is believed to accelerate the achievement of organisational goals.
Bush et al. (2009, 2011a) write about the importance of culture in schools in determining leadership. Whilst studying the impact of the ACE-SML programme in South Africa, they found out that culture is among the determinants of effective and ineffective schools. The concept, culture, is one of the two important words in organisational behaviour; the other is climate. In schools, these two concepts determine the morale of teachers, the interest of parents and the community and, most importantly, they impact on pupil achievement. The culture of the school should be able to enhance teacher commitment as well. Without committed teachers the school culture becomes impoverished. School culture is enriched by committed teachers who put their pupils first. Mart (2013) points out that teachers who are highly committed work harder and are attached to their schools as they make sure that pupils succeed. Razak et al. (2010) state that committed teachers have strong psychological ties to their schools, to their pupils and to their subject areas. Commitment needs to be part of the culture. This culture can easily be attained when teachers undergo ongoing professional development.
Ongoing professional development
Only two mentors, John and Sello, said that their mentees are aware and also practise ongoing professional development. In Plum High School the school principal leads by example. Not only does he teach grade 12 but he also attends workshops to improve his teaching. He was one of the first candidates in the ACE-SML programme. In Apple High School the mentor stated that the principal has made it his priority to accommodate ongoing professional development. He is also constantly trying to create more teacher leaders in his school. John, his mentor, said that he is aware of the change initiatives, his role as an instructional leader as well as his role in guiding his colleagues as professionals. In Orange as in Mango, the mentors are trying hard to instil the sense of professional development. In Mango, for example, the mentor pointed out that his mentee is aware of the need for ongoing professional development although he has staff who are unmotivated and uncommitted to instil some of his plans. The mentee stated that many of his staff members are unqualified and under-qualified to teach some subjects in the school; these include mathematics, accounting and technology. Yet, the mentees argued that few programmes can be brought to fruition in schools when there is no ongoing professional development. They all pointed out that this needs the commitment of the school leaders to bring about change in schools.
The mentors contended that schools fail because of this lack of ongoing professional development. They also posited that it is school leaders who cherish ongoing professional development who will succeed in guiding their schools to success. The mentors impressed this value on their mentees and all acquiesced that they were not doing enough to sustain ongoing professional development among themselves and their teachers. One mentor summed up the importance of ongoing professional development by declaring, ‘If school leaders leave out anything in their leading of their schools, they should never leave out ongoing professional development because it is the spinal cord of successful school progress sustenance’. Other mentors also argued that without a vision and commitment there could never be any ongoing professional development.
The mentors in Mango High and Orange Primary Schools also found that school leaders did not think of ongoing professional development as a necessary programme that needs to be intentional for their schools. ‘It appears that school leaders assume that when everything goes right in their schools professional development will naturally guide the process’, the Orange Primary School mentor pointed out. Change management, being curriculum leaders, effective financial management and dealing with external role-players all need ongoing professional development if schools are to be guided well, according to the mentors. They also claimed that it is schools with structured, ongoing teacher development that are likely to produce high pupil achievement. This all starts with the commitment of teachers.
Schleicher (2012) claims that all countries should develop school leaders by providing access to appropriate professional development throughout their teaching careers. Ongoing professional development leads to professional maturity that may enable principals to practice what Schleicher (2012) refers to as ‘leadership beyond school walls’. Schools and their leaders solidify collaboration, form networks and work together and nurture a culture where improving school leadership is attained across communities (Schleicher, 2012). Professional development cannot happen without professional learning. The Department of Education and Early Childhood (DoEE) (2014) in Australia contends that a commitment to providing and participating in professional learning is vital to effective performance and the development process. This is the reason the mentors in this study emphasised ongoing professional development. A DoEE publication adds that professional learning is a strong transformative tool for addressing development needs at both an individual and a school-wide level.
The mentors suggested ongoing professional development and the creation of amenable school culture because they are aware they are on top of the list when creating teachers who are critical thinkers. Craig and Perraton (2008) aver that initial teacher training alone is not enough for achieving good quality teaching. Furthermore, these authors (Craig and Perraton, 2008: 91) posit: Education is changing rapidly and teachers need to keep pace with changes so there is pressure from governments, and from the teaching profession itself, for updating. As more teachers gain initial qualifications, so the focus of governments has tended to shift towards the improvement of quality. At the same time lifelong learning in many professions, including teaching, is seen as a necessity for economic development in the competitive global economy.
Forging healthy links with other role-players
According to the mentors of Apple High and Plum High School principals, one of the factors that make their schools a step ahead of the other three schools in the study is the ability of the school management to collaborate with external role-players of the school. The mentees from both Apple and Plum have worked well with teacher unions, an aspect that has astonished mentees from the other schools. The mentors reported that all the mentees from the other three schools find it a challenge to deal with labour unions in their schools. In Orange Primary and Mango High Schools the principals cannot handle teacher unions. The Orange Primary School mentor declared what appears to be the general view among the mentees: My mentee is very despondent regarding his relationship with teacher unions in his school. He finds teacher unions as always opposing the school management team. He says some of the teacher union members call him a reactionary, a label that he takes seriously. This has caused difficulties in his leading the school. Thabitha frequently intimated that maybe things would be different if parents and unions worked well with school management. However, she always pointed out that the problem in her school is that the parents are never there and the unions are always unnecessarily imposing themselves in every aspect of the school. She does not know how to lure parents and she does not know how to regulate union activities. She is overwhelmed most of the time because she cannot forge healthy links with numerous other role-players.
Other general views of the mentors
The above themes were dominant themes shared by the mentors. There were numerous other subjects that they highlighted where they agreed and differed as they shared their mentoring experiences. Two of the five mentors, for example, maintained that gender appears to be crucial in mentoring school leaders. They were talking about their experience (outside this study) in mentoring teachers. However, others felt that they would have been equally effective as mentors if they were mentoring a different gender. The latter idea is in line with my previous research on mentoring in South Africa, where I have found that there is no difference in a female mentoring a male, or a white mentor having a black protege. Mentees are usually concerned with what mentors bring in enhancing their professional development rather than race and gender (Msila, 2013). Yet, when the mentors have experienced the contexts of their mentees in several roles – as pupils, as teachers – it enhances the mentoring experience and so on. Three also argued that they became effective in their mentoring relationships because they understood the contexts from where the mentees were coming. Two stated that their experience as pupils in township schools ensured that they understood the dynamics in these schools and were better able to mentor the school leaders from these schools. However, research differs from these postulations. One mentee, Sello, contradicted some of these assumptions. Sello is white and has never taught in a public school. He retired as a senior teacher in a private school. In the ACE-SML mentoring he mentored eight teachers from historically black public schools successfully. In this study Plum High School, where he was a mentor, is a historically Indian school.
The mentors, however, assented about the importance of pairing a mentor and a mentee because they felt that some relationships would not work when the pairing was not done carefully. It was crucial to look at the various qualities that could inform the mentoring relationship. Mary from Pine Primary related a previous short-lived relationship with a mentee who ‘lacked work ethic’ and who thought that ‘she always had answers to my suggestions’. The mentor says the mentee frequently undermined the process of mentoring despite her attempts to accommodate the mentee’s ‘years of experience as principal’.
According to the mentors in the study the mentees also argued that the national Department of Education needs to find more funding to formalise mentoring for all public schools. They said that mentoring, being a new concept in South African schools needs to be emphasised. The Zenex/ACE team cited above demonstrated that the absence of mentoring in South African schools may be one missing link in failing schools. The mentors also concurred about the need to have one curriculum for all mentors around the country where universities would lead the process of selecting and training suitable mentors as they guide them through formal programmes.
Conclusion
Usually, studies on mentoring focus on the experiences of mentees and explore how they are able to change their organisations. This study, though, concentrated on the field experiences of school leader mentors in South Africa. It is promising to see the growing awareness of mentoring in South African schools since the major findings of the Zenex/ACE research in 2007 and subsequent years. But as the mentors themselves stated there is still much that needs to be done in the mentoring process, including mentor training as well as involving role-players such as the national Department of Education, institutions of higher learning and teacher unions. The mentors also agree with previous research findings that it is school leaders who are constantly mentored who are more likely to lead effective schools. The optimism displayed by the mentors in this study illustrates that tomorrow’s successful South African schools will indeed need leaders who are mentored.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.