Abstract:

The study focused on the challenges pre-service teachers face while learning to teach Accounting in the context of mentoring at a University of Technology. The major was purpose was to investigate the kinds of challenges pre-service teachers face in Accounting and how their respective school-based mentors respond to these challenges. It is vital to understand these challenges while learning to teach Accounting before a mentor can respond to it.

This study was located within an interpretivist paradigm. The interpretivist researcher is keen to address social issues in and through their research. To position this study within the context of learning while teaching within a context of mentoring, I utilized case study research methodology. The main purpose of utilizing case study methodology was to develop a deep understanding of the challenges pre-service teachers face while learning to teach Accounting and the nature of mentoring. The voices and experiences of the respondents were used to explore and understand the reality embedded in the mentoring of pre-service teachers during teaching practice.

The research methods used in this study were reflection journals, unstructured interviews, focus group interviews and fieldnotes. Reflective journals can provide the teacher educator with a valuable tool showing how pre-service teachers perceive and experience teaching practice while learning to teach (Mills; 2007:69). The pre-service teachers were requested to provide complete entries in a reflective journal on a weekly basis to write on their experiences while learning to teach accounting and the nature of their school-based mentors’ support.

I conducted two focus group interviews with the pre-service teachers to corroborate the challenges the pre-service teachers experience while learning to teach accounting. The first focus group interview was held at the end of the first three months of teaching practice and the second interview at the end of the last three months of teaching practice. A total of 96 reflective journals were collected from the pre-service teachers, 18 unstructured interviews were conducted with the pre-service teachers and 12 unstructured interviews were conducted with the school-based mentors.

Data revealed that despite mentoring having the potential to enhance the preparation of pre-service teachers, it does not always yield positive results. It is also became clear in the data that the nature of the Accounting discipline requires a different type of mentoring as opposed to other disciplines. Hence a one size fits all mentoring institutional policy does not yield the desired results of mentoring pre-service teachers in the B Ed:FET programme. Findings from this study suggest that the university must take a greater role in developing mentorship programmes to support pre-service teachers learning to teach during teaching practice.

Keywords:

Mentoring, pre-service teachers, Accounting education.