ABSTRACT
The
study investigated the relationship between mentoring and career progression of
teachers in Lagos State Education District V1. Four research questions and four
hypotheses were formulated and tested in the study. The study adopted the
descriptive survey research design. The sample was made up of 250 teachers in
Education District V1 of Lagos State randomly selected from Government approved
private primary schools in the 5 Local Government Areas in the District. A
researcher constructed questionnaire titled “Mentoring and Career Progression
of Teachers”(MCPT) Descriptive questionnaire was used for data collection. The demographic information of the
participants was presented using simple percentages while independent T-test,
Pearson Product Moment Correlation Co-efficient were used to test the
hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study found a significant relationship
between mentoring and teachers’ job commitment; teachers’ job satisfaction;
teachers’ job performance and teachers’ preparation for administrative duties.
The study recommended, among other things, that school proprietors, principals,
heads of schools and teachers also should be exposed to the rudiments of
mentoring so that they become familiar with the concept and also mentoring of
newly- recruited teachers is necessary for enhancement of teacher’s performance
and productivity.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Page
Title
Page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgements iv
Abstract vi
Table
of Contents vii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background
to the Study 1
Statement
of the Problem 7
Objectives
of the Study 7
Research
Questions 8
Research
Hypotheses 8
Significance
of the Study 9
Operational
Definition of Terms 10
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Preamble 12
Concept
of Mentoring 12
History
of Mentoring 18
Stages
of Mentoring 20
Types
of Mentoring 23
Purpose
of Mentoring 24
Benefits
of Mentoring 25
Qualities
of a good Mentor 27
Coaching
and Mentoring 30
New
forms of Mentoring 32
Problems
of Mentoring 36
Keys
to Successful Mentoring 38
Mentoring
and Career Progression 42
Mentoring
Teachers in Nigeria 44
Theoretical
Framework 46
Appraisal
of Literature Review 59
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
Preamble
61
Research
Design 61
Population
of the Study 62
Sample
and Sampling Techniques 62
Research
Instruments 62
Validity
of the Instrument
63
Reliability
of the Instrument 63
Method
of Data Collection 63
Method
of Data Analysis 64
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS AND
PRESENTATION OF RESULTS
Introduction 65
Test
of Hypotheses 66
Summary
of Findings 69
Discussion
of Findings 70
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY,
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary 73
Conclusion 74
Recommendations 75
Suggestions
for Further Studies 76
References 77
Appendix 80
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the
Study
Education is a form of learning in which the knowledge, skills, and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the
next through teaching, training, or research. Education frequently takes place
under the guidance of others, but may also be autodidactic. Any experience that has a
formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered
educational. Education is commonly divided into stages such as preschool, primary school, secondary school and
then college, university or apprenticeship.
It is also the wealth of knowledge acquired by an individual after studying
particular subject matters or experiencing
life lessons that provide an understanding
of something. Education requires instruction of some sort from an individual or
composed literature. The most common forms of education result from years of schooling
that incorporates studies of a variety of
subjects. (Wikipedia online encyclopedia (2012).
Education began in the earliest prehistory, as adults trained
the young of their society in the knowledge and skills they would need to
master and eventually pass on. In pre-literate societies this was achieved
orally and through imitation. Story-telling continued from one generation to
the next. As cultures began to extend their knowledge beyond skills that
could be readily learned through imitation, formal education developed.
Long before the Europeans
arrived, education had been part of Nigerians. Children were taught about their
culture, social activities, survival skills and work. Most of these education
processes were impacted into the children informally; a few of these societies gave
a more formal teaching of the society and culture. In these Societies, there
are formal instructions that governed the rites of passage from youth into
adulthood. The youth is expected to have attained the necessary social and
survival skills as well as having a grounded knowledge in the culture. These
are the foundations of education in Nigeria, and upon them were the western
education implemented upon.
There were three fundamentally distinct education systems in
Nigeria in 1990: the indigenous system, Quranic schools, and formal
European-style education institutions. In the rural areas where the majority
lived, children learned the skills of farming and other work, as well as the
duties of adulthood, from participation in the community. This process was
often supplemented by age-based schools in which groups of young boys were
instructed in community responsibilities by mature men. Apprentice systems were
widespread throughout all occupations; the trainee provided service to the
teacher over a period of years and eventually struck out on his own. Truck
driving, building trades, and all indigenous crafts and services from leather
work to medicine were passed down in families and acquired through
apprenticeship training as well.
Over the centuries, in the practice of education there have been
those responsible for passing information, skills and cultures to the next
generation. These were custodians of knowledge charged with the job of
educating next generation. They are and have always been referred to as
teachers. Teachers are indispensable within the teaching – learning process.
Hence, they constitute a major input in the accomplishment of educational goals
and objectives in all nations.
Teaching involves the use of wide body of knowledge about the
subject being taught. Teachers at all levels of the educational system are very
important in the overall development of any nation. Teachers’ education is the
process which nurtures prospective teachers and updates qualified teachers’
knowledge and skills in the form of continuous professional development.
Mentoring teachers is a practice that is viewed as a favorable
strategy for preparing novice teachers for their new roles in education.
Pairing a veteran teacher with one just beginning a teaching career will reap
benefits for the new teacher (Marge 1999). Additionally, mentoring represents a
career opportunity for teachers with years of professional experience behind
them.
For the new teacher, having a mentor means removing fear of the
unknown from the teaching equation. It can be an abrupt and frightening event
to go fresh into the classroom as a brand new teacher, just certified, without
the benefit of compassionate assistance from a more experienced fellow teacher.
In addition to helping new teachers get over the hump of their early days in
the profession, mentoring has the potential of being a vehicle for
best-teaching practices.
Different scholars have made attempts to develop various
definitions of the term “Mentoring”. This could be as a result of the prevalence
of mentoring in various settings and the wide range of issues which mentors
address. Mentoring is an old concept but its value has only been acknowledged
in the last 20 years.
The use of the word mentoring dates back to the days of the
Homeric legend of the Trojan war. When
Odysses, King of Ithaca left to go and make war on the Trojans. He left his son
Telemachus and his wife Penelope in the hands of mentor, friend and retainer.
To a major degree, the mentor was responsible not only for the boys education
but for shaping his character, the wisdom of his decisions and the clarity and
steadfastness of his purpose.
Some scholars have described mentoring as a concept of
process(Roberts, 2000). Others describe it as a specific set of
activities(Bowman and Bowman 1990). Mentoring is a term generally used to
describe a relationship between a less experienced individual called mentee or
protégé and a more experienced individual known as a mentor. Traditionally,
mentoring is viewed as a dyadic, face to face long term relationship between a
supervising adult and a novice student that fosters the mentee’s professional
academic or personal development( Donaldson, Ensher& Grant- Vallone 2000).
All of these definitions show that mentoring is more than just
answering occasional questions or providing ad-hoc help. It is an ongoing
relationship of learning, dialogue and challenge. It involves informal
transmission of knowledge, social capital and psychological support perceived
by the recipient as relevant to work, career or professional development. It
usually should be face to face and during a sustained period of time between a
person who is perceived to have greater relevant knowledge wisdom or experience
(the mentor) and a person who is perceived to have less.
A mentor is usually an experienced, knowledgeable, respected,
competent and professionally mature person who guides and provides
opportunities for the professional growth of protégés by identifying situations
and events which contribute knowledge, experience and values to the life of the
protégée. Mentors should possess good interpersonal skills, be conversant with
relevant principles, be able to empathize with the circumstances of the mentee
and capable of initiating and fostering learning beyond transmission to
incorporate transactional and transformational process (Carter& Francis, 2000).
Career progression is seen to be a lifelong process of managing
learning, work, leisure and transition in order to move towards a personally
determined and evolving preferred future (Wikipedia,2014). It has also been
defined as the upward movement or advancement made by people in a particular
job.
There is a link or relationship between a teacher’s ability to
progress in the teaching career and rise to the top and the availability of a
mentor. Bandra (1976) is of the opinion that learning would be laborious if not
hazardous , if people had to rely solely on the effect of their own actions to
inform them on what to do.
A lot of researches have been done to examine the benefits of
mentoring for protégés. It has been discovered that mentoring is related to
important careers outcomes such as career progress, promotion rate and job
satisfaction. It is against this background that this study examines the role
of mentoring in career progression of teachers in Lagos State.
Statement of the
problem
It has been observed that there seem to be little or no
mentoring activity happening in schools especially in private schools, inspite
of the important role ascribed to mentoring relationships as regards individual
career development in many organizations. In the education sector, guiding
younger teachers, toward skills has become more important than ever before. It
is therefore pertinent to delve into the educational sector especially the
private schools to discover if any mentoring takes place, if there is any
system in place to enable a teacher rise in the course of the years and how the
availability or unavailability of a mentoring process has affected the
teacher’s career life. It is as a result of these that the researcher has
embarked on the study.
Objectives of the
Study
This study examines the relationship between mentoring and
career progression among teachers in private primary schools in Education
district V1 of Lagos State, in a bid to ascertain if any mentoring occurs in
private primary schools in lagos and how this affects a teacher to progress in
career. Specifically it:
1.
examines the
relationship between mentoring and job commitment of teachers
2.
analyses the influence
of mentoring on teacher’s job satisfaction.
3.
examines the
relationship between mentoring and teacher’s job performance.
4.
finds out if mentoring
has any relationship with teachers preparation for responsibilities.
Research Questions
The study provides answers to the following questions:
1.
What is the relationship
between mentoring and job commitment of teachers?
2.
How does mentoring
influence teacher’s job satisfaction?
3.
To what extent does
mentoring relate to job performance of
teachers?
4.
How does mentoring
relate to teachers preparation for administrative responsibilities?
Research Hypotheses
The study is guided by the following hypotheses:
1.
There is no significant
relationship between the practice of mentoring relationship and the job
commitment of teachers.
2.
There is no significant
relationship between teachers job satisfaction and the process of mentoring
they pass through.
3.
There is no significant
relationship between mentoring and teacher’s job performance.
4.
Mentoring does not have
significant relationship with teachers preparation for administrative
responsibilities.
Significance of the
Study
The study is significant because its results would provide
insight to various stakeholders of the fact that:
There is no planned system of career progression in most private
schools in Lagos and it is not uncommon to find teachers stay at the same level
in their career lifes in private schools for a good number of years. Career
progress is usually determined by a teacher’s ability to attend seminars, take
courses, attain degrees paid for from personal funds and this ought not be.
The problem of lack of mentoring can be directly traced to the
fact that most school heads and leaders were never mentored and therefore do
not have what it takes to mentor another. Its also important to note that a
teacher’s ability to rise in career has direct bearing on attitude to work, job
performance, job satisfaction and commitment.
Mentoring
is important and heads and leaders of schools ought to create a system of
mentoring for teachers to improve job performance, satisfaction, commitment and
overall help them progress in the course of career life.
Operational
Definition of Terms
The following terms have been defined operationally as follow:
1.
Mentoring: For the purpose of this study mentoring is
referred to as the process of supporting and encouraging people to manage their
own learning in order that they may maximize their potential, develop their
skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be.
2.
Mentor: This is a guide who can help the mentee to
find the right direction and who can help them to develop solutions to career
issues and show how to develop and move to the next level in career. A mentor
is a person or friend who guides a less experienced person by building trust
and modeling positive behaviour.
3.
Protégé:
A young person who is taught and helped by someone who has a lot of knowledge
and experience. In this case a junior teacher who isn’t so experienced and has
potential to rise in the job if helped by a more experienced person.
4.
Career:
This is an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life
with opportunities for progress.
5.
Career
progression: This refers to the upward movement or
advancement made by people in a particular job.
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