Teacher mentors’ emotional experiences in mentoring pre-service primary school teachers during a school-based teaching internship

Mentoring pre-service teachers is viewed as emotionally charged. In Vietnam, most studies have focused on mentees’ experiences in their teaching internship, leaving a knowledge gap in understanding mentors’ emotional experiences. This research, therefore, bridges this gap by investigating Vietnamese teacher mentors’ emotional experiences in mentoring pre-service primary school teachers in a school-based internship in the Mekong Delta region. A qualitative case study, drawing from complexity theory, was designated to achieve its aim. Data was collected through two rounds of structured interviews with eight teacher mentors and subsequently analyzed through thematic analysis. The findings indicated that mentoring pre-service primary school teachers was emotionally charged. Participants experienced dynamic and complex emotions during the internship, including fluid expectations towards mentees’ professional practices, uncertainty in instructional feedback and problem-solving, and openness to receptiveness in educational collaboration. At the end of this internship, participants expressed a sense of equifinality with their satisfaction in witnessing their mentees’ professional growth. This research generated practical implications for stakeholders to acknowledge mentoring as emotionally complex. They should move toward mentoring models that equip mentors with socio-emotional intelligence training to ensure the quality of pre-service primary school teacher education.