Į pradedančių dirbti ikimokyklinio ugdymo pedagogų profesinės karjeros plėtotę orientuota mentorystė

LTStraipsnyje analizuojama mentorystė kaip sėkmingos pedagogo profesinės karjeros prielaida. Siekiant atskleisti mentoriaus vaidmenį pradedančiojo pedagogo karjerai, pateikiami skirtingų tyrėjų požiūriai į pradedančio dirbti pedagogo profesinę raidą, jos etapus bei kiekvienam etapui aktualius mentorystės santykius, stilių, lyderystės ir atsakomybės pasiskirstymą. Straipsnyje taip pat pristatomas tyrimas, kuriame ieškota atsakymų į probleminius klausimus: kokius karjeros siekius studentai ir pradedantys dirbti pedagogai numato pirmam profesinės veiklos pusmečiui, per pirmus, penkerius, penkiolika pedagoginio darbo metų; kokias kompetencijas turintis mentorius galėtų padėti profesinę pedagogo karjerą pradedančiajam pedagogui pasiekti užsibrėžtų karjeros siekių. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Ikimokyklinio ir priešmokyklinio ugdymo pedagogo mentorius; Ikimokyklinis ugdymas; Karjera; Mentorius; Pedagogas; Pedagoginė praktika; Studentas; Career; Educator, student; Mentor; Mentor of preschool and pre-school education; Pedagogical practice; Preschool; Preschool education; Teacher.

ENThe article focuses on mentoring as a prerequisite for the successful professional career of the teacher. Following the scholarly literature sources it is stated that the main goal of mentoring is to help an individual with less experience to act efficiently, to experience success in personal and professional life, to develop practical competencies and to set personal career goals. A mentor is determined as an active professional, who promotes his or her learner’s personal, professional development, continuous focus on innovative children's education that complies with reforms. He or she is a maker of an innovative teacher's image, an implementer of educational reforms and a nurturer of educational institution culture.Seeking to reveal the role of a mentor in the career of a novice teacher, the attitudes of different teachers towards the professional development of a novice teacher, its stages as well as mentoring relationships, style, distribution of leadership and responsibilities at each stage of teacher's professional development become relevant. The article sets the following research questions: what are students' career aspirations for the first half of the year, for the first year, for 5 years and for 15 years of their professional work? Which competences should a mentor have to be able to help novice teachers to seek their pedagogical career and to achieve their set goals. The aim of the research: to reveal the career aspirations of a student and a novice teacher; to reveal competencies of an experienced teacher or a mentor that enable a beginner to seek his/her set career successfully. The sample of the research. The research on career aspirations embraced 50 students of early childhood and pre-primary education and 50 teachers working in Vilnius nurseries with one year of working experience.The sampling of the research was targeted: almost all the students of the last year of studies (93 %) and the majority of the novice teachers (84 %). To assess the competencies necessary for mentoring, 71 teachers of early childhood and pre-primary education with mentors qualification certificate (87 % of the total sampling) and with long-term experience of supervising students' teaching practice participated in the survey. The research methods. Theoretical analysis of the problem analysed in the article; the survey on career aspirations of students and teachers in the beginning of their professional career; expert evaluation of competences relevant to a mentor at each stage of teachers professional development applying the descriptor of mentor’s competencies; statistical analysis of the research data, the calculation of popularity index (PI). The methods of the research. In the beginning of their working career novice teachers reflect on their professional aspirations and the following tendencies may be observed: over the first half of their working experience, one third of teachers have plans to integrate into the community of an educational institution, another third of teachers seek relations with colleagues, which are grounded on collaboration and communication. Almost two fifths of the respondents want to accumulate competencies needed for professional activities; over the first year of professional activities one half of the teachers have plans to attain professional mastery obtaining competencies necessary for work and about one third of them seek continuous learning competence as well as want to enter the community of an educational institution; during the first five years of working experience almost half of the teachers have plans to gain higher qualification category.One fifth of the teachers have ambitions to become heads of educational institutions and one third of them - to involve in lifelong learning over fifteen years of professional activities. Some respondents do not plan their long-term careers (28.8 %). One of the functions of a mentor is his/her support to a young teacher to manage own professional career, to encourage insights into perspectives of a mentee's professional development in an institution of children education. To carry out such functions, it is necessary to develop certain competencies, which may change depending on the career aspirations of a novice teacher. During the first half of the novice teacher's working experience, a mentor needs competencies that focus on teacher’s adaptation in an educational institution, that is, highly developed personal, social and communicative competencies. Over the first year of his/her working experience of a novice teacher, the mentor's competencies, which focus on improvement of teacher's professional mastery and promotion lifelong learning (highly developed didactic, leadership and lifelong learning competencies), become relevant. Later in the teaching career, when a novice teacher gradually becomes a full member of teachers’ community, a mentor needs competencies that are oriented towards encouragement of development of partnership, collaboration, lifelong learning and leadership in an educational institution. [From the publication]