Head Teachers’ Perceptions about Mentoring Practices in Primary Schools

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of Head Teachers (HTs) of primary schools about the mentors’ practices and reflections of TPSs (TPSs) regarding mentoring practices of mentors under the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) framework. The study was conducted in the district of Faisalabad, the most populated city and industrial hub of the country. Researchers used the mixed-methods approach to meet the purpose of the study. A sample of 565 HTs (281 male and 284 female) was drawn out of the total 2128 HTs using the random sampling technique in layers. A structured questionnaire was administered personally to get quantitative data. To explore the reflections of the TPSs about mentoring practices, qualitative data were generated through semi-structured interviews with 32 TPSs (16 male and 16 female) selected purposively. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data and content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. The findings of the study revealed that most of the mentoring practices of the mentors were not up to the mark and needs improvement. The mentors’ authoritative behavior, weak content knowledge, and training without need assessment were explored as the key negative aspects of mentoring. Furthermore, improvement in teachers’ regularity, students’ enrollment, and use of AV aids were the positive aspects of mentoring. It is recommended that the teachers’ mentoring program should be reviewed in-depth and immediate corrective measures should be taken to address the issues explored in the study.