Research Information System
Professional Development in Education, 2025 (SSCI)
This case study aimed to examine how an online informal mentoring relationship among pre-service teachers and mentor teachers has functioned to support pre-service teachers’ professional identity development. The data were collected via video recordings that captured how 22 pre-service teachers and five mentor teachers worked in five groups to co-design lesson plans. Also, five mentor teachers and 11 pre-service teachers were interviewed. All data were analysed through MAXQDA (2020) software. The data analysis indicated that the online informal mentoring process has the potential to support pre-service teachers’ professional identity development. Furthermore, mentor teachers made use of several principles that have the potential to inform pre-service teachers’ professional identity development such as building and maintaining a strong relationship, offering support and encouragement, providing ongoing feedback, making time for reflective activities, creating a positive environment, enabling awareness, self-identifications, and future projections.