MENTOR TEACHERS ’ VOICES ON PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS ’ PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

Various studies have demonstrated that the role of mentor teachers in helping pre-service English teachers (PSETs) develop their professional experiences in school-based practicum is undeniably fundamental. Considering that mentor voices are still underrepresented in studies, this study aims to investigate the mentor teachers’ voices and beliefs to help the professional learning of pre-service English teachers (PSETs) in their school-based practicums. This is a qualitative study which involves seven mentor teachers who teach English in senior high schools in Indonesia. Data was gathered through questionnaires and unstructured interviews carried out in the participants’ school setting and analysed using NVIVO 9 (qualitative data analysis software). The findings reveal the mentor teachers’ beliefs in guiding PSETS during the school-based practicum. The mentor teachers viewed that PSETs need to learn and experience more fundamental aspects of teaching, namely interpersonal skills and emotional engagement in teaching, including their leadership. Implications for teacher education to improve the quality of relationship between PSETs and mentor teachers are addressed.

This study examines a range of views, beliefs and stories of mentor teachers who guide pre-service English teachers (PSETs) in school-based practicum since their voices and beliefs can be crucial contributions to teacher education in understanding the shortcomings of practicum and the views to improve PSETs' practicum experiences.The beliefs of mentor teachers can arguably shape the professional identity and learning of PSETs.This study is also a response of the limited number of studies on mentor teachers' voices in comparison to the voices of pre-service teachers (Ambrosetti & Dekkers, 2010).My presentation of their beliefs is organised around, firstly, the emotional involvement and interpersonal relationship, and secondly, PSETs' leadership skills and values.These themes are parts of my larger scope of doctoral study which examines the beliefs of mentor teachers, for example PSETs' classroom management, their views on PSETs' presumption on learning, as well as on PSETs' reflection which are written in different articles.
To provide the context of mentoring from international perspectives, this paper begins with discussing the role of mentor and the relationship between mentors and PSETs, including some previous criticisms regarding the problematic concept of a 'supervisor' affixed to the term 'mentor'.Next, this paper goes to explain the context in which this study is situated and finally it discusses the responses of the participants related to the two themes as previously mentioned.
Common literatures on mentoring generally understand that the role of mentoring is associated to a mentor teacher's efforts to provide guidance, advice, and encouragement to an inexperienced mentee (novice teacher) in their induction process to appreciate the culture of teaching profession within school contexts (Ambrosetti, 2014;Leshem, 2012;Richter et al., 2013).This guidance is not exclusive to merely support pre-service teachers in their practicum but also to constructively reshape their beliefs to develop their potentials as teachers (Ambrosetti, 2014;Leshem, 2012;Richter et al., 2013).The mentors' supports are expected to empower the teacher identity of the pre-service teachers by facilitating them in building up and critically challenging their own beliefs and assumption about teaching (Leshem, 2012).
A growing number of studies have documented the crucial role that mentor teachers play in the learning of pre-service teachers about becoming teachers and the development of their professional learning.For example, the supervisory roles from mentor teachers are claimed to have helped preservice teachers improve the connection between personal and professional competencies of teaching (Crasborn, Hennissen, Brouwer, Korthagen, & Bergen, 2011) which is fundamental for pre-service teachers to develop their professional identity (Ambrosetti, 2014).The mentor's help is critical as pre-service teachers often have to cope with their emotional tensions in schools (Patrick, 2013) McDonough and Brandenburg (2012) argue that the mentor teachers need to offer supports to pre-service teachers to examine the negative experiences as parts of ongoing professional development and to make them aware that negative experiences and emotions are often inevitable in the profession.
Although the relationship between mentors and pre-service teachers is crucial during school-based practicum experiences, it is often seen as problematic due to the dual role of mentor and supervisor as discussed by Ambrosetti and Dekkers (2010).The position of being a supervisor often places the mentor in a hierarchical relationship to pre-service teachers which implicitly imparts an understanding of power over the others (Ambrosetti & Dekkers, 2010).This hierarchical relationship, on the one hand, demonstrates the traditional practices of the pre-service teachers supervision which can be described as activities involving socialisation of practicum setting as well as performance-based evaluation (Richter et al., 2013).On the other hand, this hierarchical perspective to some extent can influence the beliefs of mentor teachers in that they perceive their roles as more about to do with fixing pre-service teachers teaching problems (deficiencies) in practicum learning, rather than viewing this as a shared or joint construction with pre-service teachers to find solutions (Feiman-Nemser, 2001).Such a deficit-frame of viewing is likely a result of the nature of relationship between pre-service teachers and their mentors which is often affected by the pressures in the school setting in the era of accountability and the direct influence of neoliberalism which require teachers to perform in certain ways (cf.Patrick, 2013).Thus, to balance the hierarchical view of the mentor and mentee's "supervisory" relationship, the mentor's positive self-attitude should be prioritised and should be evident and pervasive in guiding the pre-service teachers' practicum (Ambrosetti, 2014) because it will also bring about positive trajectories of their professional identity.In contrast, the term 'mentor' denotes more trusting relationship as it is characterised by "such interpersonal functions as supporting, advising, empathizing" (Ambrosetti & Dekkers, 2010, p. 44) which is now more widely used to replace the term 'supervisor'.Hence, the influence of mentors to pre-service teachers is not only in terms of empowering their skills in teaching, but also in constructing more collaborative relationship (Richter et al., 2013)

METHOD
This study took place within school-based practicum in four Indonesian private schools.There are two models of practicum in terms of scheduling, namely the block system and the distribution system.The block system requires PSETs to stay in school intensively for the whole period of school time (six days a week) for two months; while the distribution system lasts for one semester (six months) and allows PSETs to manage their schedule of teaching practice in school based on ongoing consultation with the mentor teachers in school.Usually PSETs go to teach in school for 2-4 days during a week amidst their own schedule of attending university courses.The decision to choose between block and distribution system for the practicum is usually taken by the principals of participating schools.The participating PSETs in this study came from both systems.This research used a case study method, employing questionnaires and interviews for data collection (cf.Bryman, 2015).Seven mentor teachers and one lecturer as the practicum coordinator at the faculty level participated in this study.Due to the small number of the participants, the discussion on findings was limited in scope and thus could not be generalised to other contexts.In fact, generalisation is not the aim of this study.
Next, questions constructed in the questionnaires (and followed by the unstructured interviews) were to identify pre-service English teachers' problems and challenges during practicum as perceived by the supervising teachers, including some suggestions offered to cope with those problems.Meanwhile, the method of data analysis lent a great deal from grounded theory where coding is stored and classified (Strauss & Corbin, 1990).Next, the analysis was carried out using qualitative data analysis software, called NVIVO 9.This software was useful to organise massive data from the early stage of open coding into axial coding (Hutchison, Johnston, & Breckon, 2010).With regards to the process of recruiting the supervising teachers as participants, the procedure was following the standard of a case study.First, I invited seven mentor teachers from collaborating schools where the school-based practicum were carried out.The selection of the mentor teachers employed nonrandom purposive sampling (Ary, Jacobs, & Sorensen, 2010) as they were considered representative to reveal attitudes or beliefs in mentoring.This sampling method fitted well in this research as the number of the participants was small.Second, I informed the aims of the research to the participants and they agreed to take part on a voluntary basis.Next, the participants filled out their consent form to voluntarily participate in the research.The last stage was to ask the participants to complete open-ended questionnaires (see Appendices).This questionnaire type was chosen as the topic of the research concerns with the mentor teachers' beliefs.Open-ended questions allow deep exploration to induce rich data as indicated by the research question.Hence, no descriptive statistics was used for the analysis.Some demographic information of the participants is presented in Appendices.
Based on the level of details that these mentor teachers wrote in their questionnaires, I followed up with unstructured interviews with four of them.I did not specifically provide a list of questions for these interviews as the questions were derived from individuals' responses to the open questionnaire as well as spontaneous questions based on the participants' emerging responses during the interview.For example, if one mentor teacher wrote that some PSETs "have difficulties in engaging with the students", I used this as a prompt to further inquire the response.All the questions were related to these mentor teachers' experiences in mentoring PSETs and how the mentor teachers responded to problems and challenges in the school-based practicum, particularly on the emotional engagement of PSETs and the leadership skills as teachers which PSETs exercise during the practicum.The details of findings and discussion are presented in the next section.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Based on the mentor teachers' experiences in guiding PSETs in their school-based practicum, they expressed their beliefs into at least two aspects.First, they were concerned with the PSETs' emotional involvement and how they viewed the PSETs' motivation and interpersonal relationships in schools.Second, the mentor teachers believed that PSETs' leadership skill was such a crucial character which needs nurturing from time to time.

PSETs' emotion, motivation, and interpersonal relationships
A number of studies have put forward the notion that teachers' work often demands "emotional labour" (Zeichner & Liston, 2013, p. 37) which can lead to teachers' burnt-out.In fact, research findings demonstrate that 40-50% teachers left their profession in their first five years (Emmer & Sabornie, 2014;Richter et al., 2013).Therefore, paying attention to and integrating the emotional sides of teaching is essential in teacher education.My understanding of the importance of this is that it is not limited to the emotional labour of the teacher's work, such as exemplified by an upset teacher who is handling disruptive students in class, but extends to the emotional engagement in teaching which is the basis of teacher-student relationships (Golombek & Doran, 2014;Jones, Bouffard, & Weissbourd, 2013).This section analyses how emotional engagement is closely connected with different motivational aspects of PSETs' practicum learning and their social engagement outside of the class.
Some mentor teachers I interviewed believed that emotional involvement and personal motivation to become a teacher are closely related.In my conversation with the mentor teachers and based on their responses of the questionnaire, some mentor teachers noticed that some PSETs still struggled to be emotionally involved to relate themselves with their students since they had problems of motivation to undertake the practicum.Some PSETs' motivation for undertaking the practicum seemed to be simply to complete their course unit, which resulted in minimal involvement, both in academic and non-academic activities in school.Tom, a mentor teacher from Arjuna school, correlated this low motivation to whether or not they perceive themselves as becoming teachers in the future.As he said: It was not so easy to evaluate and reflect what they had experienced because of their low motivation.Most of them [pre-service English teachers] were not intending to make teaching their career.This influenced much of their motivation when doing a teaching practicum program.(Tom, Questionnaire) Some mentor teachers also wanted to locate the problems in PSETs' misperception of the aim of their practicum in schools.Tom's solution to this problem was that PSETs need to "change their orientation of doing the practice" (Tom, Questionnaire).Perhaps PSETs may have understood that school-based practicum means only learning a set of teaching skills.Tom said his view was based on his own conversations with PSETs.They told him that while doing the practicum in school helped them to examine their decision whether or not to become teachers, it was also seen by them as just another obligation to fulfil in order to pass the subject, which explains why some PSETs struggle to engage with the students emotionally.And yet in recording these stories one should take care not to immediately place all of the blame for this situation on PSETs.Changing PSETs' orientation can be difficult because the system of teacher recruitment, as the case in Indonesia and in some other parts of the world, has encouraged PSETs to believe that a graduate certificate or a diploma is their 'passport' to a job later.It is not even a matter of all PSETs wishing to attain the best marks in school-based practicum, i.e., an 'A' or an 'HD' (High Distinction).The truth is that some PSETs are pragmatic, that is to say, they are happy if they just obtain a passing grade which is enough to get the teaching certificate.This may explain the mentor teachers' observations that some PSETs were not prepared to focus their attention on their students' needs.Instead, they are more inclined to 'cover' or complete everything listed in their lesson plan, as a formal fulfilment being a teacher, rendering their teaching to be a monologue.
The pragmatic view of carrying out schoolbased practicum for some PSETs urged Tom to explain further that emotional involvement meant being sensitive to day to day problems in a teacher's life as well as having the courage to deal with the problems -"such problems as when they were managing the class, some teaching styles being criticised, or the students underestimating their status as the "practicing teacher" (Tom, Interview).Tom believes that lack of emotional involvement in teaching runs the risk of distancing themselves with students.Tom's view on this was true when connected with the argument of Jones et al. (2013), "Social and emotional competencies influence everything from teacher student relationships to classroom management to effective instruction to teacher burnout" (p.65).Tom believed that PSETs who are seemingly uninvolved emotionally tend to be insensitive to problems in a class.For example, they are likely just to carry on teaching a lesson in a classroom without noticing critically whether their students were paying attention or not.Tom said he had seen this very thing happening in a class he supervised.The PSETs did not seem to care whether they might hold a belief from some cultural influence that conflicted with some beliefs in a class they were teaching.Through reading the PSETs written reflections, Tom was able to find out that they just assumed that what happened in class was all right even when it was clear to Tom that there were significant problems.
Still in the same vein with Tom, the other mentor teachers generally agreed that teachers' emotional involvement can determine whether or not they are able to approach and be accepted by students in their classes.Baskoro, a very experienced mentor teacher from Srikandi school, illustrated this:

It does not matter whether the teacher is senior or junior, if the students have accepted the PSETs in class, they will obey what the teacher asks them to do. …. Imagine if a teacher burst into a class and
[immediately] told the students that they would now be starting the "gerund" [a grammar part of English lesson] or else!I am sure this will not be understood by students.(Baskoro, Interview) Baskoro evidently believed that if there was another more responsive approach to teaching, then the teacher would more likely be accepted by students, and the results of the teaching would be different.As for him, he saw the teaching and learning process in schools as not simply a knowledge transfer, but rather an educational opportunity where adult teachers can engage emotionally with their school-aged students.He believed that, while communicating with these students, teachers need to sense and feel whether their words spoken to the students are understood or not.
From the above mentor teachers' experiences, it is apparent that motivation is closely linked to emotional engagement.When PSETs are motivated to see their teaching practice as basically a pragmatic action to generate a grade (for assessment), there is a danger that they see "teaching as a [mere] performance with all the reductive associations that term has" (Parr, 2010, p. 192).The more that teaching is seen as a performance, the more that PSETs are likely to focus on themselves, on how they can be better graded, rather than attending to their students' learning needs (emotionally involved).Teaching as 'performance' implies that teachers are evaluated based on standardised criteria, which often overlook the different backgrounds of the students in class.The mentor teachers told me that they also struggled to understand how PSETs often develop a study orientation for the sake of grades in school-based practicum rather than wanting to learn more or to teach better.Such self-orientation seemed to neglect the importance of good social interaction with all school components which could help them understand the importance of their professional learning.Feiman-Nemser (2003) warns that the risk of self-orientation in teachers is serious.She claims that some teachers may remain in the profession, "clinging to practices and attitudes that help them survive but do not serve the education needs of students" (p.3).Likewise, some PSETs may arguably hold a view that as long as they follow the formal requirements, then they will 'survive'.This explains the stories that the mentor teachers told me of some PSETs seeing the technical and managerial aspects of teaching as more important than engaging with their students emotionally (cf.McDonough & Brandenburg, 2012).
Underlining all the social and interpersonal aspects, the mentor teachers spoke about their beliefs that PSETs' social and interpersonal skills are the area which should become the focus of development (cf.Jones et al., 2013) .However, it seems that the development of these skills is not well supported by the current 'distribution system' scheduling, as explained early in this paper, simply because there is much less time for PSETs to engage socially with students in schools.Meanwhile, the importance of this particular dimension of 'social competency' is clearly outlined in the "Indonesia Teacher Law" which is specified in Section 10, Subsection 1 as follows: The social competency refers to teachers' ability to communicate and interact effectively and efficiently with students, fellow teachers, students' parents/ guardians, and nearby community.("Indonesia teacher law, No 14," 2005, p. 51) Nancy, the faculty coordinator of school-based practicum from Guru University (a pseudonym), emphasised that the value of interpersonal or social relationships in teaching for PSETs is so important that she needed to address these topics in a formal way in her supervision process.She said that problems associated with interpersonal relationship often occurred during the school-based practicum: The problems in schools are not only relationship breakdown between teachers themselves, but also between the teacher and PSETs, or PSETs and their students.This area is never addressed as one of required teaching skills.If I refer to the teaching syllabus, all content seems to refer to the teaching skills inside the classroom.However, when PSETs are outside the classroom, they need to socialise with other administrative staff, school management, and of course with the students out of the classroom setting.(Nancy, Interview) While Nancy realised that this problem could not be simply addressed by teaching theories in the study program and education faculty coaching prior to their placement, she felt that understanding and acquiring interpersonal skills was central to becoming effective teachers.Nancy described that the coaching undertaken in the education faculty was similar to a briefing process in that it is a socialisation of the regulations from the faculty and schools.The regulations suggest, for example, how PSETs should or should not behave during the placement in schools.This coaching lasts for three hours and is carried out once only for PSETs who are eligible to take school-based practicum.With such a limited socialisation scheme, Nancy was aware that problems related to interpersonal relationship in schools were persistently occurring.She was contemplating whether cases of interpersonal problems actually "could have been [better] integrated in the study program unit courses" (Nancy, Interview), and should not be delayed until the last stage just before the placement.Although Nancy was quite concerned with the interpersonal problems of PSETs in their practicum, she was optimistic that the problems can be minimised through increasing communication strategies among all parties involved in the practicum, namely the mentor teachers, PSETs, and teacher educators.

Leadership skills and values
This part discusses the challenges of leadership skills among PSETs which can affect their instructional approach to students.According to "Indonesia Teacher Law", the development of teachers' leadership skills and knowledge is a crucial dimension of teacher education.In this Law, leadership is defined as one of the teacher's 'personal competencies' and describes the quality of the teacher's personality as "a mature and outstanding person who sets an example to be followed by students.... Having leadership qualities and an ability to nurture each individual student" (as cited by Jalal et al., 2009, p. 35).Jalal et al. (2009) furthermore explain that teachers' leadership skills and knowledge are crucial factors in enhancing school students' motivation to learn.
The importance of teacher leadership has been increasingly investigated in a number of research studies (Lieberman & Miller, 2005;York-Barr & Duke, 2004) but one looks in vain for a consistent definition of teacher leadership in the literature.Yet I find that the definition from Fullan (1994) connects well with my research.He defines teacher leadership as "inter-related domains of commitment and knowledge" (p.246), which encompass moral responsibilities and commitments to learn continuously.Moral responsibilities relate to how PSETs understand their roles as a teacher not just in the class, but also their roles within the social and political context of a school and the wider society.I have also found the ideas from Lieberman and Miller (2005) helpful in understanding the leadership role of a teacher as encompassing several intellectual roles.They say: "Teacher leaders inquire into their own practice and, in so doing, become articulate about learning, teaching, and modelling lifelong learning" (Lieberman & Miller, 2005, p. 161).Central to this idea is the notion that leadership is learnt in contexts (e.g., classrooms or organisations) rather than learnt merely as decontextualised theories in university courses.Teachers who see themselves as leaders usually learn about leadership from reflection on and in the experiences and contexts in which they work (cf.Schön, 1983).
The research literature associated with becoming a teacher in Indonesia repeatedly emphasises similar critical problems (Bjork, 2003;Bullough & Hall-Kenyon, 2011).For example, in the context of educational decentralisation, Bjork is concerned by the lack of leadership practices in a group of Indonesian teachers as they are predisposed politically to comply with and follow orders from the authorities (Bjork, 2003).This is evident in Indonesian teachers' performance evaluation regimes which emphasise the teachers' willingness to "serve the government, not their skills as educators" (Bjork, 2003, p. 204).
Apart from some problems which inhibit PSETs in their professional learning, one intrinsic challenge faced by PSETs is their inability to see themselves as leaders in the first place.This challenge emanates from the fact that PSETs are usually young persons, and yet, they are called upon to act as a knowledgeable and wise figure of a teacher whom many students would rely on.Baskoro, the research participant who has broad knowledge of teaching and experiences of mentoring PSETs, reported this challenge as a form of tension: PSETs may not get used to being digandhuli [a Javanese term, meaning 'being depended upon'] by students, except those PSETs who were actively involved in university organisations.For such PSETs, they were accustomed to a situation in which other people depended on him or her.Thus, one cause of the pre-service English teachers' difficulties is that they are not accustomed to lead younger people to gain new values, especially in classes where the students are aggressive and inclined to rebel.(Baskoro, Interview) Baskoro clarified that PSETs need to develop a sense of responsibility that enables them to deal with younger people who depend upon them.This involves leadership skills which, he suggested, can be learnt by PSETs who are actively engaging in students' organisation.By doing this, he said, they can become accustomed to dealing with pressures not only from their own study loads and from lecturers, but also from other areas.Baskoro believed that if PSETs spent their time in university only studying, they would never get to experience what it is like being "depended upon" by others.Thus, it might be accepted that teachers need to be leaders in an educational setting, and that this would entail students depending on them for information, guidance and sometimes for support in nonacademic ways.This idea is congruent with the Indonesia's education father, Ki Hajar Dewantara, who proposed one of three pillars for teachers, namely Ing Ngarsa Sung Tuladha (teachers must provide good examples, not only knowledge and skills, but also attitude).However, the mentor teachers explain that PSETs are sometimes unprepared for this; yet, they are also unprepared for the opposite: that is, when young people in school feel that they do not need their teachers at all, and so the PSETs are likely to be the subject of complaints, or the targets of offensive and/or aggressive behaviour by their adolescent students.Poekert (2012) reminds us that becoming a teacher means acknowledging oneself to be a leader.These roles can be very complex for PSETs because they have to learn many things at the same time.The tension may grow when the PSETs become more aware that students depend on them as their 'leaders'.If the PSETs are not used to leading people, they may feel awkward or inadequate when they are 'depended upon' by their students.It is almost certain that learning this kind of leadership cannot be done merely in the campus-based parts of teacher education courses because often their central focus is on teaching knowledge rather than on the "clinical work" (Feiman-Nemser, 2001, p. 1021) and the relational work of teaching.Feiman-Nemser (2001) seems to suggest that it is often more effective to learn and to exercise leadership skills outside of the classroom context.As Baskoro also puts forward, this can be carried out in extracurricular activities both in university and school contexts.
Apart from the leadership activities outside of a classroom, Baskoro said that he sees opportunities to learn leadership skills in the classroom, although he is conscious that some leadership skills and values in teaching cannot be easily taught.Manara (2012) has also discussed the belief of a senior lecturer in one teacher education faculty in an Indonesian university, confirming that teachers "cannot learn that [leadership knowledge and skills] from books alone" (p.276).As for Baskoro, PSETs' existing leadership skills (and also the areas where they needed improvement) can be seen in how they address discipline problems during their practicum.He exemplified this by raising interesting questions regarding PSETs' leadership with the case of students' cheating in schools: "When students are cheating in the class, do these PSETs have the courage to take further actions?Will they warn the students?"(Baskoro, Interview).With this statement, Baskoro also touched upon the idea of PSETs' vulnerable status as the praktikan which can adversely affect their leadership potential (cf.Hong, 2010).Baskoro's queries are fundamental for developing PSETs' leadership skills in the context of decision making, whether or not PSETs have the courage to engage with unexpected problems in class.Perhaps, Baskoro wished, PSETs could take a few more informed risks in their teaching which is a strong basis of teacher leadership (cf.Danielson, 2006;Patricia, 2008).Thus, considering that leadership is shaped from experiences which are continuously reflected upon, it would seem reasonable that the mentor teacher should expect that PSETs understand and develop leadership qualities during their placement.
Although the mentor teachers explicitly expressed the view that they appreciated the PSETs' situation and tensions in undertaking school-based practicum, these mentor teachers seemed to be predisposed to occasionally leap to deficit portrayals or constructions of PSETs.It may be that this focus on the negatives in PSETs' practices might be as much of a problem for the PSETs' learning and development as any particular concern about the PSETs' deficits in the areas of emotional engagement, motivation, and leadership understanding and practices.On the other hand, there is no doubt that the mentor teachers I spoke to, who were all experienced teachers with a wide repertoire of teaching skills and knowledge, clearly demonstrated a commitment and a deep enthusiasm for PSETs' future improvement as teachers.It is possible that their concern to locate and fix deficits in what they observed sometimes may have caused them to inadvertently overlook the complex and long learning journey which PSETs are undertaking in their efforts to develop their teaching skills and professional identity.

CONCLUSION
In this paper, I have presented and discussed the voices and beliefs of mentor teachers about PSETs' professional learning in school-based practicum.Their views and stories were highly varied.Among other problems reported by mentor teachers, I have presented mentor teachers' strong views about the importance of emotional and interpersonal involvementindeed, they saw this as a prerequisite if PSETs wanted to be accepted by students in the classrooms where they teach.To this end, the mentor teachers believed that PSETs needed to focus not only on the administrative aspects of their teaching, but more importantly on how they listened to students' needs in class.There were equally serious concerns about PSETs' dispositions to show some leadership ability in their teaching practice.The mentor teachers felt that PSETs' leadership was an area which needed much improvement and perceptions about a lack of leadership skills and knowledge in PSETs when they undertook their school practicum were widespread.There was a feeling that PSETs' lack of leadership qualities prompted other problems for them in schools, such that they were less likely to be respected and accepted as real teachers by students in classrooms.
As I did not investigate the reflections and teaching practices of PSETs', future researchers are suggested to critically examine how emotional and interpersonal involvement can induce stronger PSETs professional identity, including the PSETs leadership ability in the school-based practicum.Next, in relation to PSETs drawbacks, the mentor teachers indicated that the 'distribution system' scheduling of school-based practicum has not supported PSETs in building the social relationship with students which in turn, determines the extent to which students are engaged in their learning.Therefore, future researcher needs to seek alternatives for PSETs to gain optimal practicum experiences with the allotted time spent in schools.
The implication of this study relates to the construction that PSETs' learning to become a teacher is emotional, complex, and often invisible, mediated within the political system, social, educational, and cultural practices, as well as personal dispositions.Therefore, there may be some dangers with locating PSETs' learning within a deficit framework of professional learning.It is equally important for all pre-service education stakeholders (e.g., policy makers, teacher educators, the mentor teachers, and the PSETs themselves) to understand the complexity of the problems and tensions which PSETs have to manage and cope with.It can be helpful for PSETs to understand their professional learning when they are invited to regularly reflect on their practices in the light of their individual background and experiences.As for the mentor teachers, their professional experiences and identity may have shaped the ways in which they mentor PSETs in their schools.Thus, it is suggested that those mentor teachers can regularly be facilitated to come in a forum to communicate with teacher educators and PSETs earlier in the university-based learning (prior to school-based practicum) to share their views on mentoring PSETs, including the joy and challenges of teaching and engaging themselves with school students.It would seem that the more dialogue established among the university and school can help PSETs understand their roles as a teacher and help them adjust their identity in the transition to become professional teachers.