Abstract:
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the teacher-trainee mentorship
programme of the Colleges of Education in the Central-Western Zone of
Ghana with special reference to mentor competencies, stakeholders‟
perception of the mentoring process, sources of conflict between mentors and
mentees and the effects of financial cost on mentoring. A descriptive survey
and phenomenology designs were adopted to answer the objectives for the
study. Structured questionnaires and interview guides were used to collect
data for the study. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data
analysis. The total sample size for the study was 1451 respondents. The
outcome of the study was that, stakeholders had positive perception of
mentoring and perceived it to be beneficial. Mentees and the college
representatives generally felt that the duration of the mentoring process was
too long. The mode of selection of mentors was less formal, and the mentors
had less training in mentoring though they were predominantly trained
teachers. The views of stakeholders on the competencies of the mentors were
mixed, but in most cases, they still felt that the mentors were able to deliver
relatively well on their job. Financial cost was found to be a binding constraint
on all the stakeholders but the mentees were the most affected. Conflict was
not a widespread phenomenon in the mentoring process though packets of it
were identified. It was recommended that the colleges had to expand and
formalise mentors training, remunerate the mentors and move for the
introduction of mentoring as a full course at the college for the students.
Schools of attachment need to provide decent accommodation for student teachers on out segment programme.
