Mentorship Developments in the Primary Phase of Initial Teacher Education at the University of Reading

This paper seeks to describe and explore some of the concepts underpinning the development of Mentorship at the University of Reading in relation to Primary Initial Teacher Education (PITE). The research and development phase of this project has been carried out over the past three years and the first set of pilot studies have just been concluded. The current phase of research and development involves an entire cohort of students in the second year of their BA(Ed) degree who will be in school in the Summer term of 1994. Preparation activities and events have been organised with university tutors and teachers in associated schools — all teachers in associated schools; a key and distinctive feature of this scheme. The first part of the paper discusses the particular features of the Reading Primary Mentorship programme and some of the hazards faced when developing such an extensive scheme. The second part of the paper analyses some of the difficulties faced within Higher Education Institutions, for whom, it is argued, the transformation of role is equally as great as the transformed school teachers’ role and the associated difficulties as great yet less well documented and discussed.