Mentoring And The Development Of New Business Lecturers In South African Tvet Colleges

Abstract

A characteristic of South African Technical and Vocational (TVET) colleges is that more than half the teaching staff employed do not meet the State’s professional qualification requirements, which is a four-year post-school qualification.  The employment of lecturers without the required qualification necessitates that lecturers’ professional capacities are developed by means of informal learning processes, one of which could be described as mentoring.  This paper uses a combination of forms of discourse analysis used to map the initial skills development process of business lecturers at TVET colleges.  It provides a discussion of forms of mentoring involved in the initial development of TVET lecturers and the application thereof as seen from the perspective of new business lecturers.  This paper contributes towards an understanding of challenges involved in applying a critical methodological paradigm.  It also contributes towards understanding initial staff development by challenging the neo-liberal notion of mentoring in which the point of power is located in the mentor.