One size does not fit all: Adaptive Mentorship in South African Primary Teacher Education

This interpretive study reports that work-integrated learning is a crucial component of teacher education programmes, as it enables pre-service teachers to acquire practical experience in real-life classroom situations. This study builds upon a doctoral research project that investigated mentorship practices as a component of work-integrated learning, aiming to enhance the quality of teaching and learning. This depends on whether stakeholders integrate structured support, evidence-based practices, and continuous improvement mechanisms into teacher education programmes. This qualitative approach used Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. The study reported on the issue of mentorship in teacher education, particularly on how mentors adapt their approaches to accommodate the diverse learning styles of primary pre-service teachers in varied classroom contexts. The purposive sample consisted of 20 pre-service teachers, five mentor teachers, and five mentor lecturers. Data from interviews, observations, and document analysis were thematically analysed. The study focused on the principles of scaffolding and the zone of proximal development to highlight the role of responsive support in the learning process. Findings revealed that effective and astute mentors adopt flexible, student-centered, personalized, and customized approaches to meet the individual needs of their mentees. The study advocates that differentiation should be rigorously implemented in WIL mentorship programmes. The study adds to the existing literature on enhancing teacher-education programmes.