CONFLICTING PROFESSIONAL PRIORITIES IN ELT: TRAINEE-TEACHERS', MEN-TORS' AND UNIVERSITY INSTRUCTORS' PERSPECTIVES

Abstract The paper focuses on the possible reasons for the appearance of conflicting professional priorities during school-based internship from the perspective of the three major agents in the English language classrooms: trainees, mentors, and university instructors. The discussion is based on the results of a survey conducted among 23 BA teacher trainees, and 27 adult re-trainee teachers enrolled in a teacher qualification course at a Bulgarian state university, as well as interviews with some of their mentors and two university supervisors. The survey and the interviews targeted aspects of teaching, which potentially provoke conflicting perceptions about teaching, such as the importance of the teaching context (a big town school or a small village school), awareness of learner variables (motivation, first language, proficiency level), preferred approaches to teaching; familiarity with key concepts in modern teaching, and trainees’ personal abilities in teaching and reflection.