Mosaic Book of the Term Prize Draw
Spring 2025
Written by Rob Caudwell, Co-Founder of Penrose Education
28 February 2025
At Penrose Education we are on a mission to fill the (teacher development) world with thoughtfully designed and effective EdTech. But we also want to fill the (teacher development) world with books.
Each term we will be reviewing a book we have found helpful, interesting and/or thought-provoking in our attempts to develop our understanding of what exceptional teacher training, education and professional development looks like.
Best of all – you could win a copy of one of these books in our Book of the Term Prize Draw!
Our chosen book this term is: Mentoring Teachers: Supporting Learning, Wellbeing and Retention, by Angi Malderez.
Why we chose this book?
The 2024-25 academic year has been quite a tumultuous year for mentors working in ITE in England. The Department for Education’s (DfE) latest accreditation guidance came fully into effect in September – with a lot of new instructions around what mentoring provision needs to be included in ITE programmes. But then only two months after this guidance was brought in, significant changes were announced. The central change was the removal of the only recently-introduced requirement for all mentors to complete 20-hours of mentor training in order to support trainee or student teachers.
Whatever you might have felt about the original guidance – or the later decision to scrap elements of it – I suspect there are many working in ITE who feel the same as me. That as the dust settles from the these changes to accountability measures, perhaps there is now an opportunity to return our attention to where it should have been all along: how do we help and support our mentors to be brilliant at working alongside our trainees and student teachers? This is a question that we think a lot about at Mosaic, as mentors are a huge part of what we do. We were delighted to add Angi Malderez’s book to our bookshelves (alongside some other mentoring and coaching classics like this one and this one and this one!)
In Malderez’s own words, the book is intended as a “handbook for mentors” (p3), something that will help the reader to develop their own thinking about the role of mentor – as well as what it means to be effective in that role. However, Malderez has also written this book “to challenge some established, taken-for granted views and practices” (p144) on what mentoring is. It isn’t for the faint hearted, you probably should only read it if you are comfortable having your opinions tested and challenged!
If you aren’t lucky enough to win, you can always pick up a copy from Routledge!
"For me, being 'effective' as a mentor means working in such a way that it supports mentees' learning of teaching and of reflective practice, their wellbeing and their chances of remaining in and being committed to the profession."
- p3
What we've taken from it
The first thing that you cannot help but notice when reading this book is how different the definition of ‘mentoring’ that Malderez sets out is from what might be considered ‘typical’ in ITE in England at the moment. This is partly explained by the fact that the book is not focusing specifically on ITE, and instead covers mentoring more generally. But that does not account for all of the differences.
For example, early on in the book, Malderez claims that ideally mentors should not 1) observe mentee’s teaching and then give feedback; or 2) give advice about how to teach (p9). To be clear, she is also not saying that teachers should never be observed, or given feedback or given advice – she is simply saying that because these are all in some ways forms of “assessment” they don’t fall under her definition of what a mentor should be doing. Her argument is that if you want someone to train a teacher, call that person a ‘trainer’; and if you want someone to assess a teacher, call them an ‘assessor’ – but don’t merge all these different roles together under the term ‘mentor’. (There’s more on what her version of mentors do do in section two below)
"[Some mentors] may still have assessor duties. Having to combine roles can make your job as mentor so much more difficult..."
- p89
"[Mentees who are at the early stages of their careers] often want and expect to be told what to do and whether what they are doing is 'right' and 'wrong'. Mentors need to find ways not only to explain to and persuade mentees that this is not a good idea, but also, crucially... to fight their own experientially learnt instincts to give in and tell them!"
- p136-7
At times, this can feel unsettling, or even unnerving, because the book is challenging foundational ideas or principles that you might not have even realised that you have been taking for granted. Reading it can, therefore, sometimes feel a bit like a workout, as you are being asked to revisit some of your own underlying assumptions that you might not have thought about for a while. As mentioned above, this is deliberate. If you approach it with this in mind, ready and excited to be provoked and challenged, you will have a great time – prepare your counter-arguments and good luck! But be warned, in the process, Malderez might just persuade you that some of your foundations aren’t quite as solid as you had hoped.
But even if the book doesn’t change your mind about, for example, whether mentors should be giving their mentees advice on how to teach, you should still come away having thought deeply about important things that you might not have properly considered for a while. Malderez does also offer some compromises to those of us who are unwilling (or simply unable) to follow her advice in its entirety. She offers a whole chapter of advice for how mentors who are asked to observe and/or assess their mentees can best do so – even while making it clear that this is far from ideal in her eyes.
A second thing that I really appreciated about the book is just how expansive a view of mentoring the book offers. You might be wondering: ‘if according to Malderez’s definition, a mentor isn’t supposed to give feedback and advice on the mentee’s teaching, what are they meant to be doing?’ For Malderez, there are five roles that mentors should be fulfilling for their mentees: 1) Support, 2) Acculturator, 3) Model, 4) Sponsor and 5) Educator. I won’t go through each of them (although I do highlight the “Support” role below), but here I want to make a simpler point. Taken together, Malderez is not narrowly focused on the mentees performance in the classroom (although this definitely features, largely under the “Educator” role). For Malderez a mentor is supporting their mentee’s whole professional person.
The mentor helps their mentee navigate the emotional, cultural, professional, practical and technical demands of the job. By working back from this end goal, she sweeps in all the different facets of a teacher’s professional life and includes them within the scope of a mentor. But she is also very clear that it isn’t the mentor’s role to know everything about everything, but instead to help the mentee to understand, engage with and develop their own independence in these different teacher domains. It’s not that the mentor will never give their mentee practical support or short-cuts, it’s just that the long-term goal is mentee autonomy and self-sufficiency.
"Mentoring is about helping mentees learn teaching. So, as well as understanding something about a learning process, I needed to consider what helping someone through that process involves... as a mentor, my role is not to do things for the mentee but to help them do things for themselves."
- p13 [original emphasis]
Malderez takes these themes even further in a treasure trove of a chapter about how mentors can further their own development either individually, or working with others. If mentors are expected to help their mentees to explore and develop their expertise, what help is there for the mentors? The chapter is bursting with practices, processes, conceptual tools, theories and ideas for thinking about and improving your own practice as a mentor. It’s a gem of a chapter.
"So to readers adopting the approach described in this book, I want to say that you will be rewarded by your own and your mentee's satisfaction and the knowledge that you are not only supporting the development of your mentees but also of yourself and the whole teaching profession."
- p140
"Your aims in the Support role, which include being a sounding board and a shoulder to cry on, require not only a good relationship so that your mentee is willing to talk to you, but also good listening skills so that your mentee can vent and be/feel heard for cathartic purposes."
- p43 [original emphasis]
The third thing and final thing that I loved about this book is how clearly and explicitly Malderez outlines the crucial role mentors play in mentee wellbeing. Within the context of a busy ITE or ECF programme, it is so easy for a mentor-mentee relationship to become focused on practising specific teaching strategies or reflecting on key professional learning or simply getting through to-do lists . But Malderez reminds us that, a mentor-mentee relationship is always first a relationship between two humans. As I read the chapter on the ‘Support’ role I was vividly reminded of specific and incredibly formative mentoring moments that I have experienced – both as a mentee and a mentor. These moments often had very little to do with teaching practice directly. But, through the relational, emotional support being offered in those moments (either to me or by me or both!), these mentoring conversations helped shape entire careers. It is hard to demand that mentors must provide extensive wellbeing support to their mentees. Authentic wellbeing support is going to depend on the quality of relationship between mentor and mentee, and you can’t always take that for granted – especially within the shorter placements that make up many ITE programmes. But the book makes the claim that we should at least allow for the conditions for real relationships to form and then develop between mentors and mentees, as the benefits can be considerable.
How Mosaic supports effective mentoring
Mosaic provides a centralised platform designed to help strengthen mentoring in teacher education by streamlining collaboration, engagement, and professional development. With intuitive tools for tracking progress, facilitating meaningful conversations, and delivering mentor training, Mosaic ensures that mentors are supported in their crucial role of guiding and developing new teachers while recognising their expertise and experience.
How can I win a copy?
We are giving away three copies of Malderez’s book to anyone working in positions related to teacher education, training and development.
Click the button below to be in with a chance to win.
Entries close 11:59pm on the 13th April 2025. We will randomly select the lucky winners on the 14th April 2025.