Challenges to reconcile research with the teaching role. - A discussion of methodological approach in a project based on further education in counselling and coaching.

Guidance, mentoring, supervision and coaching are important areas of development in different types of professions. Several programs offer nowadays further education to adults who wish to improve their abilities to guide and coach. What characterizes these competencies in this specific program from the students’ perspective and how do they develop their competence in this area? The focus will address the methodological challenge that the different roles of a researcher might create. The definition of the terms guidance, mentoring and coaching will subsequently be outlined in the course of the study. Definitions of these concepts differ in the literature, but some characteristics are present when we describe the process. Some characteristics are that the process is formal, pedagogical, client centred and based on voluntary interaction with other people. The focus is on empowerment, reflection and development of the client(s) (Tveiten (2006), Skagen (2011), Mc Leod (2007)). The purpose of this paper is to discuss and present preliminary results from an on-going research project about further education in guidance and coaching and the development of competencies in this area among the students. The teaching in this program is also the research field. Therefore, the students are co-researchers and participate in the data collection and data analysis. The group of students consist of professionals from different professions such as teachers, nurses and child protection educators. The theoretical framework of the study is social constructivism (Cresswell (2007)) and methodological approach in the frames of phenomenological and grounded theories building on both Moustakas and Charmaz. The research intends to answer questions such as: What is the meaning of mentorship for the students? What do the students think a mentor competency should consist of? How do students assess the program based on their experiences? The data for the study consist of students’ logs, interviews with the students, video recordings of the students’ mentoring at the workplace, texts from the students’ exams, and the teacher’s own log after 2 years of teaching with the students.