Abstract
Globally, and within the South African context, when entering the teaching profession beginner teachers find themselves grappling with basic educational competencies. Beginner teachers find it difficult to adjust to the work environment and culture of a school, often resulting in anxiety and low self-esteem. Mentorship programmes could provide beginner teachers with the guidance and support that they require in order to meet the challenges that they face such as administration, classroom management and the working environment. Within the South African context, research has been conducted into mentorship programmes for beginner teachers from mentor and School Management Team perspectives. However, previous work has failed to address beginner teachers’ perspectives on mentorship programmes. Therefore, this research study was designed to address the research gap regarding the perspectives of beginner teachers on mentorship programmes in fee paying public schools. This qualitative study used a phenomenological approach, where data was to be collected through the implementation of face-to-face interviews. However, due to Covid-19 restrictions at the time of research, the interview schedule with the open-ended questions was sent to participants via email. The data was collected through the participants completing the interview questions and emailing them back to the researcher. The data collection highlighted the obstacles that are faced by beginner teachers, shortfalls of mentorship programmes and the need for formal mentorship programmes. This research study recommends that the Department of Education and School Management Teams create and implement mentorship programmes in order to assist beginner teachers in addressing and overcoming challenges they face. These programmes can contribute to producing personal and professional growth within beginner teachers.
M.Ed. (Educational Leadership and Management)