NEW SITE @ https://mentorship5.webnode.fi/
Read about the European Mentorship Programme 2019 below
Future possibilities
Collaboration across generations is an expression of hope 1
The initial inspiration for this pilot project was based on work modelled in Finland. Since 2011, four national and international projects built around the themes of “educating educators” and “reflections on pedagogy” have been organized and supported by the Finnish JaSeSoi ry Orff-Schulwerk Association.
Our programme stands next to these European projects in Finland as well as to the programme of the Orff Association in Turkey: it addresses the training of teachers to teach teachers. We have all been formed and inspired by an Orff-Schulwerk approach in our teaching and in our lives and carry the hope that this pedagogy will continue into the future. Each of these concepts wants to nurture and challenge passionate musicians, movers and eventual master teachers.
The singular focus of our mentorship programme lies in the close, personal supervision between mentor(s) and mentee(s).
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“Collaboration across generations is an expression of hope. For the senior participants, who mentor and work with their younger…colleagues, it provides continuity, a new embodiment of their knowledge. It also stimulates them to reach for transformative ideas with the help of energetic and questioning young colleagues. For younger partners, the advantages of intergenerational collaboration include a guided entry into the complex worlds of human achievement and the opportunity to closely observe an experienced thinker, indeed to witness that person’s mode of thought…as well, they have the opportunity to appropriate what they have witnessed and been taught.” 2
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We veteran educators, in our younger years, experienced casual mentoring at best. Our vision is to establish a professional development program that instead of being random requires intentional effort, foresight and clear communication. The interaction between our junior and senior mentors with our mentees serves to heighten the dynamic process of knowledge transmission, further insights into creative processes, emphasize reflective practices and develop the perceptual acuity that are the building blocks of an Orff-Schulwerk approach in music and movement education.
Additionally, while this initial pilot project is European-based, it is very possibly a model on which to base other mentorship programmes further afield. Ilke Alexander, a member of our planning group, is providing us with insights and advice on how this concept could be adapted in South Africa.
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1 Vera John-Steiner: Creative Collaboration (2000). Oxford Univ. Press, p. 151
2 ibid.