As part of my teacher inquiry I'll continue to analyse some key words/ concepts:
- Strategic leadership of the CP
- Line-management of the CP
- Mentoring the CP
- Coaching the CP
- Supporting the CP
Today - mentoring.
During my career, I've had a few mentors. Three, actually. These have mostly been older males who I've turned to for advice and guidance. One was a teacher (who remains a mentor after fifty years), another a Principal (who remained a mentor until he passed away), and the third a colleague - a fellow Principal (who was a mentor until he left our school).
A couple of things guided my choice of mentor. One is that I have to have trust in the person to give me that advice and secondly, they need to have that essential experience to be able to provide me with that advice.
In my own experience, it's a great way to learn from the other's experience if the relationship is there, but I'm not sure it can be imposed on people. I chose my mentors is my point.
A mentor's role, as I've seen it defined, is to use their experience 'to help a (usually) junior employee by supporting them in their work and career, providing comments on their work, and, most crucially, offering direction to mentees as they work through problems and circumstances at work.'
Mentoring has an informal aspect to it, and is usually face-to-face. It's more personal, long-term and relationship focused. That doesn't sound like it applies too neatly to the District Principal/ Campus Principal roles.
Bottom line, I'd be wary of having a mentor assigned to me that I didn't have a relationship with, and so, I'd be wary of being imposed on someone else.
Coaching is what I'll explore next.
