ESCALATE Final Project Report: ‘The CPD (Continuing Professional Development) Needs of Mentors in Post-Compulsory ITT (Initial Teacher Training)’ [Project Name]

This research project has gathered qualitative data on mentoring within PCET ITT (Post-Compulsory Education and Training Initial Teacher Training). The research findings complement the work of Tedder and Lawy (2009) and Ingleby (2010). The research methodology draws on the conceptual framework of hermeneutics by developing Richardson’s (2000, 2004) process of ‘crystallisation’. This means that the methodological process has been influenced by Gadamer’s (2004) hermeneutics by placing what Urban (2008, p146) refers to as ‘the way we are in the world (ontology) before ‘the constitution of warranted knowledge (epistemology)’. The research findings are based on questionnaire data that has been gathered from 80 PCET ITT students and their mentors alongside semi-structured interview data from eight mentors.