Creation of a mentee contract document

Comment critically on ethical practices of mentoring and coaching

In this part of my work I am concentrating on the production of a document that can be used within my institution as a contract between mentee and mentor. The document would attempt to make implicit the ethical practices within mentoring that may be a cause for concern during the course of the relationship. This document could then be used by trainee teachers and their mentors when they arrive at this institution as an additional layer of support and induction to what is expected by both parties.

The name of the Institution is for the purposes of this document Lime Tree High Secondary school. The school has over 1100 students on role between 12-16. It is also a Training School attached to it, that specializes in outreach to other schools in the area when it comes to CPD. Lime Tree High regularly receives PGCE and SCITT trainees from the several Universities. The mentee document will therefore be very useful for such an institution whose inductions procedures are already very well used. Currently it has no such document.

Before attempting to produce this document I will review ethical codes of practice in other industries that use mentoring to induct or develop new staff. The EMCC (European Mentoring and Coaching Council) set out a Ethical Code to guide and develop mentoring and coaching relationships, whatever form they might take. Their ethical code covered the following areas:

· Competence

· Context

· Boundary Management

· Integrity

· Professionalism

All subsequent codes of practice seemed to have covered these areas so it is worthwhile having a brief discussion on each of these topics and their relevance to Mentoring in a Secondary school.

Competence relates to the skills of the coach/ mentor and seeks to maintain the expert level of this individual. It seeks to define the level of expertise and knowledge sufficient to meet the needs of the mentee. Through appointment of a supervisor who can regularly asses the qualifications of the mentor. The professional development requirements of the mentor/coach can be maintained and improved. Competence doesn’t just mean best fit for the mentee but also an institutional commitment to the mentor. To this end teachers who have a specialism not just in their subject areas but have the necessary professional accreditation for mentoring or adequate experience could fall into this section.

Context is the unique situation that the coach/mentoring is taking place. A clear set of guidelines to explain what the expectations are for this learning opportunity and how they are to be met. A secondary school is a high pressure environment, with trainee teachers having more demands on their time than ever before. The additional emphasis of trainees who are undertaking M level work while at their placement schools means that time in the classroom learning the actual job of teaching has been reduced.

Boundary management this is for the coach/ mentor to recognize the limitations of their own experience and recognize those opportunities to pass the mentee to a more qualified member of staff. Using other staff in a secondary school to demonstrate best practice and difficult techniques should be made available to the student, but the attitude of providing these opportunities for the student is the job of the mentor.

Integrity makes issues of confidentiality, unprofessional behavior, discrimination, unlawful behavior part of the coach/ mentor responsibility to the mentee. Classrooms can often be places of conflict and confrontation, the security of both staff and students depends on the integrity of mentors as role models.

Professionalism describes a fluid relationship where the coach/mentor responds to the needs of the mentee. In this section outside the obvious exploitation (financial, sexual or professional) the emphasis of a contract that is only as long as is necessary and does not foster dependence is key in this area. Additionally the acceptance of a variety of different approaches to coaching and mentoring should be respected and actively transmitted to the mentee.

Clutterbuck has defined two styles of mentoring, in this search for a ethical underpinning for this document, I will use the development model

Developmental Mentoring

COACHING GUIDING

NETWORKING COUNSELLING

Developmental mentoring ensures that the relationship remains balanced and with each style of mentoring employed in balance with the other. Clutterbuck’s (2004) model tries to emphasis the role of the mentor as balanced and appropriate, giving the mentee the opportunity to develop in a direction of their choosing with support and expert scaffolding.

At some odds with this balanced approach is the work of Levinson et al (1978) who asserts that the relationship must be based on a nurturing process. Where the mentee acts as a protégés. For Levinson et al (1978) this demands that the mentor befriend and even go so far as becoming a substitute parent to an adult child. In each outline of ethical code of practice I have researched this seems to have been strictly avoided.

Indeed the NHS code of ethics (Appendix 1.1) defines a very egalitarian approach to mentoring. Whereby the first code;

1. The mentor’s role is to respond to the Mentee’s needs and agenda; it is not to impose their own agenda

This could be more relevant in defining a coaching relationship over a mentoring one. The ninth guideline has a similar feel;

9. Either party may dissolve the relationship

Has more of a coaching feel, whereby the relationship implied is much more based on two practioners of similar skill levels engaging in a process of learning that looks to develop a specific skill.

Mentoring in a secondary school is governed by national standards, in order to reach Qualified Teacher Status the mentee must undertake a period of training with an awarding body, either a university or through the school itself. The standards set by the QCA in the case of PGCE students means that the mentor really must impose an agenda, to ensure that the mentee can demonstrate the key competences that allow them to work towards their QTS. Although a student may drop out of the course (thereby dissolving the relationship) it is more likely that a mentor can refuse or dissolve the relationship that otherwise a student may wish to continue. Even though PGCE mentors do not have the authority to pass or fail students they can pass on advice to the University or awarding body that ulitimately has the right to pass or fail the student.

This is significant as it alters the relationship, in some cases the student is much more at ease with the School mentor since they are not responsible for their course success, but in other cases the School mentor has the task of transmitting the most stressful part of the learning to the student. That of practically teaching the skills used in the classroom. This makes the NHS code of ethics and the code required by a school quite different. With the disparate backgrounds of the students and no one accepted method of accomplishing a goal; schools provide a unique challenge for a mentoring code of ethics.

Fletcher (2000) puts this point very well;

‘…there has to be resilience, drawing upon compassion for a colleague mistakes coupled with an acknowledgment that mistakes are inevitable. The art of mentoring lies in which mistakes are acceptable, which are not and where a trainee with problems is failing and with that, the skill of knowing how to advise a failed trainee to leave.’

In this case the mentor needs to make tough choices and approach difficult situations with moderation and patience. Any code of practice that I would create must acknowledge this process for the mentee, indeed the competence issue is such that its acknowledgement should be at the heart of any document given to the mentee. It is a difficult acknowledgement to make without producing a strict hierarchy that some mentors might shy away from or worse find a hindrance to the very task of mentoring.

Mentoring is a partnership between two people. It is a process of ongoing support and development which tackles issues and blockages identified by the mentee. The mentor offers guidance, counseling and support in the form of pragmatic and objective assistance. If the following guidelines are agreed, they should help to develop a strong learning relationship.

The majority of literature I have read on this topic is focused on either the mentor or the relationship between the mentor and the mentee. There has been very little work from the point of view of the mentee. This is to say that within an institution we are training excellent mentors with large bodies of literature supporting the work of mentors to be more effective. However there is little to direct the attitudes and behaviors of the student teachers themselves.

I reviewed my own personal experience as a professional mentor and sought to find a method whereby the Mentees Code of practice would be a default induction within the ITT process. For if as Fletcher (2000) says ‘it can be no longer assumed that the school based mentor will be older as well as more experienced than the novice teacher,’ Fletcher sees this as a school based issue of smooth transition for the mentee. However she does not recognise that it could also be a issue of mentee perception although she concedes that ‘mentees do not come as a blank slate, for they bring their employment and learning history with them,’ it seems as though this fact is only relevant in so far as it is recognized by the mentor. However the initial steps that a mentee goes through are almost without exception the same for all candidates and are to do with an adjustment of circumstances and environment.

To this end my mentoring code of ethics became a personalized document, written in the first person. Drawing on coaching techniques from counseling rather than mentoring techniques from HE or FE. I wrote each point in the first person and left a space for the student to initial. I have provided a full exemplar of this document in Appendix 1.2. The induction is part of the ethical code of practice for the mentor/mentee relationship but is read very much from the point of view of the mentee in order to prepare them for the role they are about to take. It is designed to be a question and answer document that should be commented on and responded to by the mentee. The QTS standard that concerned me the most was Q33 Ensure that colleagues working with them (mentee) are appropriately involved in supporting learning and understand the roles they are expected to fulfill. QTS (2009)

Points 1-3 (Appendix 1.2) cover Clutterbuck’s coaching style in the developmental model. Points 4-6 (Appendix 1.2) cover Clutterbuck’s counseling style. Points 7-9 are very firmly under the Guiding style. Point 10-12 are designed to facilitate networking. However they look at mentoring from the mentees point of view. Fletcher (2000) concedes that not every graduate could be an effective teacher then proceeds in detail to outline the self audit that a mentor should go through. Student teachers have a great deal to contend with but the relationship with the school based mentor is at the make or break end of the cycle. It seems illogical that this part of the induction process is left entirely to the skills of the mentor. Although trainee teachers are inducted before arriving at schools there seems to be no formal process to make them reflect on first meeting their mentors as to what they should be expecting. Or indeed the mindset that will take them further.

Another way that perhaps the same effect could be reached is if the previous student would record a message at the beginning of his/ her mentoring cycle on their feelings and initial impression of the mentor and that these would be played back to the new student. This process begins to place the mentee within a greater whole as they begin to see themselves as one of many students who have successfully passed through the mentors’ hands. Crucially however it allows the student to accept the expectations of the mentor/ mentee relationship in a very immediate way. At once defining their role and what their expectation should be.

One of the criticisms of this method and the Code of ethics contract is how it is interpreted. If seen as just another piece of paper it use will clearly be minimal, this death by work sheet that trainee students often go through could devalue the entire process.

Also for individuals who come from a culture where mentoring is not as widespread the acceptance of such parameters may be hard to do. Take point 3 (Appendix 1.2) sounds deliberately quite old fashioned. Harking back to pre industrialized notions of mentoring it seeks to give the relationship a gravitas beyond the pass and fail, which is the currency by which mentors and mentees are currently judged. To one where a colleague may refer back to professional relationship over the course of a career.

In essence it seeks to create a “buzz” about mentoring as a specialized and specialist activity in which it is a privilege rather than a right to take part in. Even though this may be a slight exaggeration, its purpose is to clarify the intention of the mentee.

Appendix 1.1

Ethical code of practice NHS Mentoring

1. The mentor’s role is to respond to the Mentee’s needs and agenda; it is not to impose their own agenda

2. Mentors must work within the current agreement with the mentee about confidentially that is appropriate within context
3. Mentors must be aware of any current law and work within the law
4. Mentor and mentee must be aware that computer-based records are subject to statutory regulation under the data protection act 1984
5. The mentee should be aware of their rights and any complaints procedures
6. Mentors and mentees should respect each other’s time and other responsibilities, ensuring they do not impose beyond what is reasonable
7. The mentee must accept increasing responsibility for managing the relationship; the mentor should empower them to do so and must generally promote the learner’s autonomy
8. Either party may dissolve the relationship
9. Mentors need to be aware of the limits of their own competence in the practice of mentoring
10. The mentor will not intrude into areas the mentee wishes to keep private until invited to do so. However they should help the mentee to recognise how other issues may relate to these areas
11. Mentors and mentees should aim to be open and truthful with each other and themselves about the relationship itself
12. Mentors and mentees share the responsibility for the smooth winding down of the relationship when it has achieved its purpose – they must avoid creating dependency
13. The mentoring relationship must not be exploitative in any way, neither may it be open to misinterpretation

Reference: http://mentoring.londondeanery.ac.uk/mentees/ethical-code-of-practice accessed 04/03/2009

Reference : Created by the national working party, led by Ann Reynard - University of North London as part of an government initiative to establish national standards of mentoring (2006)

Appendix 1. 2

Ethical code of practice for mentee at Lime Tree High

Initial below when each point has been read by the Mentee

1. ____ I understand that at the initial stages of the match, I may appear to be hesitant, unresponsive, and unappreciative of the mentor relationship. This guarded attitude is simply a manifestation of my insecurity about the relationship. My attitude will gradually take a positive turn as I realize the sincerity of the Mentor. My mentor will be patient! And not try to speed up the process by going out of their way to accommodate me, such as seeing me more than the prescribed ____ hour per week.

2. ____ I understand that the mentor won’t try to be teacher, parent, disciplinarian, therapist, Santa Claus or babysitter. Experience demonstrates it is counterproductive to assume roles other than a dependable, consistent professional. I will present information carefully without distortion and give all points of view a fair hearing. Listen carefully and offer possible solutions without passing judgment. I will think of ways to problem solve together.
3. ____ I understand and Respect the uniqueness and honor the integrity of my mentor. The mentor empowers me to make right decisions without actually deciding for me. The mentor identifies my interests and takes them seriously. They will be alert for opportunities and teaching moments. Explore positive and negative consequences.
4. ____ I understand that I will have to set realistic expectations and goals for myself and make achievement of them fun.

5. ____ I understand that my mentor will assist in making the connection between my actions of today and the goals of tomorrow. My mentor will not get discouraged if I’m not turning my life around or making great improvements. Mentors have a great deal of impact; it’s not always immediately evident.
6. ____ I understand as a friend a mentor can share and advise, but know their limitations. Problems that are not part of the professional world may effect me and my behavior but may remain totally unknown to my mentor.
7. ____ I will never use abusive language towards my mentor
8. ____ I will never shout or raise my voice during a discussion, as all time spent with my mentor is for my benefit.
9. ____ I will never offer ultimatums or use the ‘silent treatment’ as a response to a problem. I will try to discuss my concerns.
10. ____ I will give myself credit when told to by my mentor, in equal measure to giving myself criticism. I won’t be too hard on myself recognizing this is going to be a very tough process.
11. ____ I recognise and understand that my mentor is qualified and responsible enough to undertake my training. I have come to this conclusion after speaking to them about who they are, what they have achieved and what they can offer me. I have come to this conclusion freely and enter into the mentoring contract with the full understanding that this relationship must end with me being independent of my mentor through assimilating their advice and making it my own.

12. ____ I understand that if concerns come up for me regarding my mentor or the process of our relationship I can contact Name (Email), the mentor program coordinator, or Name, the director of the Lime Tree High initial teacher training centre.

This contract has been reviewed and understood.

__________________________ _______________________________

Mentee Signature Date Mentor Signature Date

Reference

1. Clutterbuck, D. (2004) Everyone Needs a Mentor (3^rd edition),London: CIPD

2. EMCC http://www.emccouncil.org/ accessed 21/03/2009

3. Fletcher, S (2000) Mentoring in schools, London: Kogan page

4. QTS standards (2009) http://www.tda.gov.uk/partners/ittstandards.aspx accessed 17/04/2009

Bibliography

1. Clutterbuck, D. (2004) Everyone Needs a Mentor (3^rd edition),London: CIPD

2. Fletcher, S (2000) Mentoring in schools, London: Kogan page