u  Support in developing an identity within the school community

u  Emotional or pastoral support

u  The development of a teacher identity is seen as a key part of the learning to teach.

u  Three perspectives:

l  First, within a socio-cultural perspective, the critical role of the mentor is in supporting student teachers development of a comfortable and congruent sense of self as a teacher.

l  Second perspective, robust reasoning within an investigation-articulation approach to teacher education – revisiting questions about identity at regular intervals helps the student teacher to articulate their developing sense of self, e.g. ‘who am I as a teacher?’ and ‘who is my professional community?’

l  Third, developing a personal narrative, suggesting that beginning teachers moved significantly towards establishing their own identities as teachers through creating their own stories.

-      These three perspectives can be supported by the following practical strategies for mentoring:

u  Nurturing and modelling

u  Questioning and reflecting

u  Exploring and facilitating the development of narratives

u  Teaching practice is perceived as a particularly stressful and demanding period which involves considerable amounts of distress, changes in psycho-physiological patterns and an increasing sense of weariness and ‘vulnerability’.