Building Relationships in Mentoring

Building Relationships in Mentoring
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Introduction
The term “mentoring” refers to a component of professional discourse related to initial teacher education (ITE); the concept refers to the services of a senior teacher as a consultant to guide students in their practical teaching practices. A teaching mentor is an experienced and seasoned teacher who provides teaching students an opportunity to work in the field along with him so that he can guide them in methods to accomplish their goals (Pachler & Field, 2001). Hence, a mentor endeavors to provide support, training, and education to students and assess their performance. However, the traditional concept of mentorship has focused on developing a relationship between a novice and a trainer between the teaching students and mentors; this relationship falls into the apprenticeship model of mentoring (Pachler & Field, 2001). This traditional model does not provide equal learning opportunities for teaching students based on equality and partnership.
Building better relationships with mentees and professionals in the field has been a great challenge for a mentor willing to supervise teaching students. Improved relationship between them is imperative to enhance the output of teaching training. Better mentoring relationships facilitate the development of professional and personal affinities between trainee and trainer staff (Hobson et al., 2009). In the same way, one can accomplish better collaboration between mentor and mentee and a more joyful learning and training experience. Building relationships on these grounds also encourages even senior teachers to participate in mentoring and enrich the novice teacher with their key insight (Hobson et al., 2009). Therefore, for an effective mentorship, one has to find ways to develop better relationships with teaching students and colleagues working at the workplace and outside.
New research and improvisation in the domain of mentorship have developed a new mode of mentorship, which facilitates building better relationships between mentors and teaching students. This model is called the convergent role of mentor and teaching student, which is based on the principle of co-tutoring; this model discourages differentiation of responsibilities and promotes better working and learning relationships (Pachler & Field, 2001). This model also substantiates the notion that reshaping relationships between mentors, mentees, and other relevant professionals is the need of time. Therefore, the current discussion provides an in-depth understanding of the challenges a mentor faces in developing a better relationship; it also aims to find different modes of mentorship that can improve these relationships. Finally, it explores various benefits a stronger and equal relationship between mentor and mentee can offer both participants.
Discussion
Problems Associated with Poor Mentoring Relationships
As the introduction indicates, mentoring involves observation of peers and seniors of mentees to assess and guide them for improvement in their professional performance. In this regard, a technique called Peer Obse...