Mentoring for school-based teacher education

Due to the shortage of teachers at schools, the Ministry of Education and Science in Latvia has devoted special attention to fast track of teachers to teaching starting new teacher education project to attract capable and motivated professionals from various fields to the work of a teacher. This also raised the necessity for the development of programme and training competent teachers to act as mentors in school-based teacher education programme. The study aimed to explore and evaluate mentor education in the context of work-based (school-based) initial teacher education. The research sample consisted of 55 participants of mentor professional development programme and 2 mentor trainers. The data analysis of participants’ questionnaires, reflections, mentor trainers’ self-evaluations and feedback on participants’ assignments led to the guidelines for building partnership between schools and universities to promote a common understanding of school-based teacher education. Keywords: mentor education; school-based teacher education; student teacher; university-school partnership