Strategic Professional Experience Partnerships for Mentor Teacher Participation: Overcoming Challenges by Enhancing Support

Placing pre-service teachers for compulsory professional experience remains a significant challenge, particularly in regional areas and for those enrolled out of state and across the country. Policies and prior research emphasize the crucial role of partnerships between initial teacher education providers and education settings in sourcing professional experience placements and supporting mentor teachers and pre-service teachers. However, teacher workforce shortages and the departure of many experienced educators has made establishing and maintaining these professional experience partnerships increasingly difficult. Professional experience partnerships that support the selection and professional learning of mentor teachers are especially challenging when pre-service teachers are studying in a university in one jurisdiction but live in another. This study analyzes longitudinal data (2017–2021) on mentor teacher participation from one regional university offering both online and in-person initial teacher education programs to students across Australia, including a substantial international cohort. Although the average number of mentor teachers per school declined over this period, the number of participating schools increased, with a few schools supervising unexpectedly large numbers of PSTs in 2021. Interestingly, smaller schools, relative to their full-time equivalent teaching staff, mentored a proportionately higher number of pre-service teachers than larger schools. Surprisingly, mentor teacher participation increased during the Covid-19 period, contrary to anticipated trends. While this finding is explicable by the unique situation of the university in a jurisdiction that had limited disruptions due to Covid-19, this was not the case nationally. During this period the university invested heavily in building formal partnership agreements with all school systems. These partnerships focused on building collaborative relationships with school leaders, offering mentor teacher training, and providing financial incentives. Additionally, the university employed a small team to support mentor teachers and pre-service teachers during placements. This study underscores the vital role of initial teacher education providers in developing and maintaining partnerships with education settings in addressing the challenges of mentor teacher participation.