Principals accelerate professional learning through mentoring to enable educators’ self-directed learning in diverse settings including rural public schools.
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| Title: | Principals accelerate professional learning through mentoring to enable educators’ self-directed learning in diverse settings including rural public schools. |
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| Authors: | Oberholzer, Lizana1 l.oberholzer@wlv.ac.uk, Mestry, Raj2 |
| Source: | South African Journal of Education. 2025 Supplement, Vol. 45, pS1-S11. 11p. |
| Subject Terms: | *School principals, *Career development, *Autodidacticism, *School improvement programs, *Rural schools, *Educators, Mentoring, South Africans |
| Geographic Terms: | South Africa |
| Abstract: | This study investigated how mentoring could be used by principals in schools in South Africa to develop school leaders and teachers to promote self-directed learning within classrooms. Research accentuates that self-directed learning needs to be embedded as a pedagogical culture through mentoring to impact effectively on learner outcomes. Principals need to enable staff to apply this approach to learning more consistently through mentoring to ensure that learners move forward. Mentoring is identified as one of the most underused interventions to drive school improvement by the inspectorate in England. The researchers aimed to test this claim in South Africa, by developing principals’ mentorship to professionally develop their teams and to enable learner achievement in diverse and rural settings. The study aimed to address the following research question: How do school leaders and principals use mentoring as an intervention to develop school leaders and teachers to promote self-directed learning within the classroom? The research project provides unique insight into how developing the skills of principals and leadership teams to draw on mentoring, can enable staff to refine their practices by facilitating self-directed learning in diverse schools and classrooms to drive social mobility. Using an interpretivist qualitative case study, the authors explored how mentoring, as an intervention, could be used to develop educators and impact positively on learner outcomes. The study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with principals, school leaders, and teachers. The data suggest that mentoring made a significant impact on educators’ self-directed learning practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of South African Journal of Education is the property of South African Journal of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Education Research Complete |
| FullText | Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Header | DbId: ehh DbLabel: Education Research Complete An: 189743422 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Academic Journal PubTypeId: academicJournal PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Principals accelerate professional learning through mentoring to enable educators’ self-directed learning in diverse settings including rural public schools. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Oberholzer%2C+Lizana%22">Oberholzer, Lizana</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><i> l.oberholzer@wlv.ac.uk</i><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Mestry%2C+Raj%22">Mestry, Raj</searchLink><relatesTo>2</relatesTo> – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22South+African+Journal+of+Education%22">South African Journal of Education</searchLink>. 2025 Supplement, Vol. 45, pS1-S11. 11p. – Name: Subject Label: Subject Terms Group: Su Data: *<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22School+principals%22">School principals</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Career+development%22">Career development</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Autodidacticism%22">Autodidacticism</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22School+improvement+programs%22">School improvement programs</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Rural+schools%22">Rural schools</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Educators%22">Educators</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Mentoring%22">Mentoring</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22South+Africans%22">South Africans</searchLink> – Name: SubjectGeographic Label: Geographic Terms Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22South+Africa%22">South Africa</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: This study investigated how mentoring could be used by principals in schools in South Africa to develop school leaders and teachers to promote self-directed learning within classrooms. Research accentuates that self-directed learning needs to be embedded as a pedagogical culture through mentoring to impact effectively on learner outcomes. Principals need to enable staff to apply this approach to learning more consistently through mentoring to ensure that learners move forward. Mentoring is identified as one of the most underused interventions to drive school improvement by the inspectorate in England. The researchers aimed to test this claim in South Africa, by developing principals’ mentorship to professionally develop their teams and to enable learner achievement in diverse and rural settings. The study aimed to address the following research question: How do school leaders and principals use mentoring as an intervention to develop school leaders and teachers to promote self-directed learning within the classroom? The research project provides unique insight into how developing the skills of principals and leadership teams to draw on mentoring, can enable staff to refine their practices by facilitating self-directed learning in diverse schools and classrooms to drive social mobility. Using an interpretivist qualitative case study, the authors explored how mentoring, as an intervention, could be used to develop educators and impact positively on learner outcomes. The study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with principals, school leaders, and teachers. The data suggest that mentoring made a significant impact on educators’ self-directed learning practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] – Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright Label: Group: Ab Data: <i>Copyright of South African Journal of Education is the property of South African Journal of Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.15700/saje.v45ns1a2714 Languages: – Code: eng Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 11 StartPage: S1 Subjects: – SubjectFull: School principals Type: general – SubjectFull: Career development Type: general – SubjectFull: Autodidacticism Type: general – SubjectFull: School improvement programs Type: general – SubjectFull: Rural schools Type: general – SubjectFull: Educators Type: general – SubjectFull: Mentoring Type: general – SubjectFull: South Africans Type: general – SubjectFull: South Africa Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Principals accelerate professional learning through mentoring to enable educators’ self-directed learning in diverse settings including rural public schools. Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Oberholzer, Lizana – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Mestry, Raj IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 02 M: 10 Text: 2025 Supplement Type: published Y: 2025 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 02560100 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 45 Titles: – TitleFull: South African Journal of Education Type: main |
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