Mentoring Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Mentoring - Essay Example Metros and Yang (2006) trace back the origin of mentoring as a professional activity back to the ancient Greece where the technique was used to impart personal, spiritual and social values in young men. The modern mentoring borrows from the historical apprentice/craftsmen relationship where trade was learnt by young people through copying the master artisan. It was in the 1970s that mentoring was adopted as a career development strategy. Indeed, this cost-saving approach has been universally applied to ensure continuous professional development. This paper evaluates the application of mentoring as a human resource function in the teaching profession. Establishing what mentorship means in the teaching profession and evaluating the resultant benefits, it would be appreciated that mentoring is a universal and cost effective learning and development approach that results in continuous professional development in teaching. Mentoring refers to a relationship where a senior employee takes u p the responsibility of grooming junior or new employees in an organization (Elkin 2006). Interpersonal, political and technical skills would be conveyed from the more experienced employee in this relationship. This makes experience a key concept in mentorship with mentors expected to exude greater experience, achievement and influence. As such, Donnelley (2008) and Rao (2008) refer to a mentor as a counsellor, teacher, skills and intellect developer, guide, exemplar, host and most significantly, facilitator and supporter in the realization of the vision of the kind of life envisioned by the person being mentored, referred to as a protegee. The main objective of mentorship is to help employees attain psychological effectiveness and maturity and also get integrated into the organization. According to Metros and Yang (2006), it provides career advice and personal and professional enrichment to mentees. This could occur at a formal or informal level based on the work culture and top ma nagement commitment. In the teaching profession, the many associated roles including classroom management and discipline, learning new curricula, individualizing student programs, using technology and coordinating extracurricular activities among others could be a challenge for new teachers to handle (Thomas 2012). This could make the achievement of the institutional goals elusive. Mentoring plays a critical role in ensuring that learning institutions achieve their targets. Specifically making an observation of institutions of higher learning, Metro and Yang (2006) observe that these learning institutions previously did not identify or support the professional needs of its staff, focus having been on managing the diverse student clientele. Such practices have however been overtaken by events as more institutions adopt mentorship programs as a way of ensuring continuous professional development for its staff. According to Walcott, the chancellor of the New York City Department of Edu cation, mentorship means much to them, offering crucial support to new members of the profession (2013). At the commencement of each school year, teachers new to the profession would be assigned a mentor to offer personalized support through the first year of their teaching career. In fact, the organization has a system in place to track the mentoring process by matching and documenting all mentoring interactions between the teacher and the mentor. To have