Author(s): AMORIM, C., RIBEIRO-SILVA, E., Institution: UNIVERSITY OF COIMBRA, Country: PORTUGAL, Abstract-ID: 391

Introduction
Preservice teachers (PSTs) spend time in real classrooms during school placement to familiarise themselves with the intricate requirements of their future careers. Numerous academic works emphasise the importance of the cooperating teacher (CT) during the school placement, and PSTs’ professional identities are shaped by their interaction and support from the CT (Izadinia, 2016). PSTs are required to learn about a range of topics and elements related to the teaching profession from CTs. This study aimed to comprehend how CTs perceive their role as mentors and how it affected and contributed to PSTs’ identity formation.

Methods
Seven CTs with 22 to 40 years of experience teaching physical education participated in this qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data, and the questions centred on mentoring. The CTs were given preference in terms of time and location for the interviews. The interviews were audio recorded and manually transcribed with all personally identifiable information removed to protect the participants’ privacy. We performed thematic content analysis and to identify trends in the data, we conducted a comparative horizontal analysis. Categories driven by the data were: PST role, PST characteristics, pros and cons of mentoring, PST strengths and weaknesses, PST teacher identity and professional relationships.

Results and discussion
CTs understand that PSTs should start their school placement by being available for a year of learning and want to mentor PSTs who are predisposed to it. CTs value PSTs with commitment to the school placement and availability to learn, which were also seen as strengths. The disparity in training and lack of personal investment in their formation process were seen as weaknesses. The role of CT is seen as positive for its challenge and keeping up to date. The negative side of mentoring relates to the amount of work that CTs must do. CTs believe that PSTs have good preparation in didactic-pedagogical knowledge but not in the different sports. Half of the participants believe that PSTs develop a teacher identity throughout the school placement and the rest believe that it depends on the person and their previous experiences. Despite some conflicts that sometimes arise, CTs maintain a friendly and professional relationship with their mentees.

Conclusion
This study set out to study the role of the CT as a socialisation agent. We understand that CTs place a strong humanistic focus on the personal development of the PSTs in addition to acquiring essential teaching skills. If we desire a certain socialisation, we must also value these CTs and CTs perceptions of their own mentoring should be made clear.

References
Izadinia, M. (2016). Preservice teachers’ professional identity development and the role of mentor teachers. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 5(2), 127–143. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-01-2016-0004