TITLE:
Guiding the Next Generation: The Transformative Power of Mentorship and Career Development in Physical Education
AUTHORS:
Munkaila Seibu
KEYWORDS:
Career Development, Ghana, Mentoring Practices, Physical Education and Student Interns
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Physical Education,
Vol.15 No.1,
December
5,
2024
ABSTRACT: Mentoring practices are crucial for the career development of student interns. Yet, there exists limited research on this aspect regarding the extent to which career development in physical education (PE) is influenced by mentorship. This study examines the impact of mentoring practices on the career devel-opment of Physical Education (PE) student interns from the University of Education, Winneba during internship in Senior High School in Ghana. The objectives are to identify the practices incorporated into the mentoring pro-cess and the perceived consequences on the interns’ career development. A cross-sectional survey with census sampling was conducted on 122 PE stu-dent interns. The participants comprised 26 females and 96 males with their ages, ranging between 20 to 42 years. The instrument was a self-developed and validated questionnaire with a Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient reliability of 0.74. Multiple Linear Regression was employed in the data analysis. For all mentoring practices, the results showed direct and positive effects on career development, except for model teaching and mentoring philosophy. Though, the most powerful driver of career advancement was mentoring feedback, mentoring practices as a whole accounted for 44.6% of the variation in in-terns’ career development outcomes. The development of mentoring philos-ophy and integrating model teaching into the early part of the students’ in-ternship curricula seem to have potential improvement on participants ca-reer. The study concludes that comprehensive and regular training of men-tors in feedback, leadership, and accessibility is crucial for fostering the ca-reer-readiness of PE teachers. It is recommended that mentors should scaf-fold student interns’ teaching confidence and classroom management devel-opment for the initial stages of internship for effective career development.