SO UN D I N G T H E T E A CH IN G
2
Exposition
EX A MI NI NG MU SI C LEA R NI NG EX P ER I ENC ES
EXPERIENCING THE MENTORING PROCESS
Mentoring:
An Auto-ethnography
BY TAN TE ING IM, QU EENSTOWN SE C ONDARY SC HOOL
In recent years, I have been asked to mentor new teachers,
untrained contract teachers and NIE trainees. And I often ask
myself, “How can I be a better mentor?”
H OW
I
I T AL L
S TAR T E D
first heard about Ben, th e main character in my story, when my
Head of Department told me we would have a newly trained
music teacher posted in. One week later, I met Ben.
Ben came across as a friendly guy, always with a smile on his face. He
spoke with a certain accent which made me wonder where he was from.
Ben told me that he had classical piano and classical vocal training.
We made plans to discuss the scheme of work and lessons for the new
batch of Secondary 1 students in the following semester. However, I was
surprised to receive a text message from Ben a week later.
Morning Teing Im,
I have a piece of
bad news for you.
After checking my
results, I found
out that I’ve failed
my practicum and
need to redo it
in July.
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Based on the various experiences
I had as a mentor, I have written an
autobiographical story.
What is auto-ethnography? It is a form
of qualitative research in which an
author uses self-reflection and writing to
explore his or her personal experience,
and connects this autobiographical story
to wider cultural, political and social
meanings and understandings.
The characters in my story are fictitious
but the events recounted are real.
Throughout my mentoring experience, I
felt that I was not only collaborating with
my mentees and NIE supervisors, I was,
in a way, also collaborating with myself
through my self-reflections and writing.
Here is my story.
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