Disertasi

Reflective discursive mentoring to foster efl pre-service teachers’ action-oriented reflection, professional identity, and teacher agency during teaching practicums / Priyatno Ardi

Abstrak
Mentoring for EFL pre-service teachers (PSTs) in teaching practicums is acknowledged to enhance their professional learning. It provides support and guidance helping PSTs to bridge theory and practice to derive meaning from their experiences to manage stress and to build resilience. Despite extensive studies on mentoring how it supports PSTs in transitioning from reflection to action still merits exploration. This underscores the importance of ensuring that reflection does not remain in a vacuum but leads to transformation. Furthermore many studies have revealed that mentoring often prioritizes the practical aspects of teaching overlooking the professional selves of teachers and undervaluing the teacher as a person. Mentoring that cultivates the inner professional self can assists PSTs in constructing their teacher identity and developing their teacher agency. As a result they understand their professional roles and make contextual and intentional pedagogical actions during teaching practicums. In this study mentoring is conceptualized as a reflective discursive practice in which EFL teacher educators and serving teachers as mentors support EFL PSTs in developing their practical teaching skills and cultivating their inner professional selves as teachers during teaching practicums through reflective conversations. Despite a hierarchical relationship effective reflective discursive mentoring is characterized by open communication mutual respect trust and support. Reflective discursive mentoring is organized by the English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) at Sukolimo University as a follow-up to the mentor training held in 2022 by the Indonesian Directorate General of Teacher and Education Personnel in collaboration with National Institute of Education in Singapore. As the mentor training highlights reflection and conversation in mentoring the mentoring initiative also prioritizes reflective conversations aligning with the university rsquo s commitment to reflective pedagogy as its signature pedagogy. The mentoring serves as a reflective dialogic space for PSTs to make meaning of their practicum experience in which they share tensions and incite vulnerabilities helping them improve their teaching skills and understand their professional selves as teachers. This study aims to explore how the reflective discursive mentoring stimulates PSTs rsquo action-oriented reflection catalyzes their professional identity (re)construction and shapes their teacher agency development during teaching practicums. A qualitative case study design was employed to address the inquiries. Two mentors (a teacher educator and a serving teacher) who joined the mentor training and four PSTs participating in a ten-session of the reflective discursive mentoring were selected as participants for this study. Data were collected through virtual observations video recordings and semi-structured interviews with the mentors and PSTs. The data reflected the participants rsquo experiences regarding the PSTs rsquo action-oriented reflection professional identity (re)construction and teacher agency development through the mentoring. The mentoring transcripts provided direct insights into how the PSTs articulated their teaching challenges strategies and professional growth while the interview transcripts further clarified the mentoring data and uncovered additional layers of meaning that did not initially emerge. The transcripts were analyzed with observation notes serving as a guide by providing initial emerging codes. The codes were developed and categorized into themes. The analysis focused on how the mentoring facilitated the PSTs to reflect on their experiences and devise actionable plans. It also delved into how the mentoring influenced their professional identity construction highlighting moments of transformation dissonance and reinforcement. Additionally it spotlighted how the mentoring shaped their teacher agency development particularly in decision-making problem-solving and adapting to challenges. This study revealed three major findings. First the reflective discursive mentoring stimulated the PSTs rsquo action-oriented reflection through recalling and sharing professional experiences introspecting on the experiences and developing transformative mindsets. As accentuating different ways of thinking about and engaging with time and experiences the processes of action-oriented reflection were conceptualized as retrospection introspection and prospection respectively. Second the reflective discursive mentoring catalyzed the PSTs rsquo professional identity construction through creating a systematic and supportive space for reflecting on their temporal theoretical and practical experiences fostering the dynamic construction of the PSTs rsquo professional identities. The findings highlight the importance of reflection as a quintessential aspect of the PSTs rsquo professional identity (re)construction providing ample opportunity to shape their multifaceted and dynamic identities rather than fixed and linear ones. Lastly the reflective discursive mentoring shaped the PSTs rsquo teacher agency development by establishing temporal connections facilitating action-reflection cycles activating a sense of plausibility reframing vulnerabilities as strengths and deepening understanding of authority. The findings underscore the critical role of personal experiences contextual factors and reflection in developing the PSTs rsquo teacher agency. This study identified the interplay of the PSTs rsquo action-oriented reflection professional identity (re)construction and teacher agency development during the teaching practicums in the mentoring which shared common elements like iterative reflection experience integration contextual grounding cognitive and emotional engagement dialogue and transformational focus. The action-oriented reflection laid the foundation for the PSTs rsquo professional identity (re)construction and teacher agency development by encouraging the PSTs to examine their experiences. In turn their professional identity construction and teacher agency development which mutually reinforced each other provided the contextual and personal insights that enriched their reflection. The reflective discursive mentoring thus provided a framework where action-oriented reflection identity (re)construction and agency development worked simultaneously. This study highlights key pedagogical implications for mentoring in EFL teacher education particularly in fostering reflective practice and supporting PSTs rsquo professional identity construction and teacher agency development. Integrating reflective discursive mentoring into teaching practicums provides a structured and supportive space for PSTs to engage in action-oriented reflection construct their professional identities and cultivate their teacher agency. To facilitate action-oriented reflection mentors require formal training which provides them with the mentoring skill enhancement to prompt reflective conversations as well as the opportunities to practice the mentoring skills in simulated scenarios. Such preparation enables mentors to encourage PSTs to actively participate and create a safe space for PSTs to express vulnerabilities. Moreover mentoring should also be context-specific promote professional knowledge and link actions to theories.

Informasi Detail

DDC

Rd 370.11 ARD r

Prodi

Universitas Negeri Malang. Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, 2025.

Deskripsi Fisik

xxi, 214 lembar. : ilus. ; 30 cm.

Bahasa

No Reg

00093/RD/25

Edisi

Disertasi (Pascasarjana)--Universitas Negeri Malang. 2025

Subjek

1. GURU, CALON - PRAJABATAN - PENDAMPINGAN
2. TEACHERS, PROSPECTIVE - PRE-SERVICE - MENTORING

Pembimbing

1. Prof. Dra. Hj. Utami Widiati, M.a., Ph.d.; 2. Dra. Nunung Suryati, M.ed., Ph.d; 3. Anik Nunuk Wulyani, S.pd, M.pd, Ph.d

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