L'invisible activité des tuteurs au prisme de l'analyse interactionnelle

This paper focuses on mentoring practices as they are accomplished in the vocational training of early childhood educators. Students learning the occupation of early childhood educator are exposed to authentic work experiences during practicum. In such contexts, they are guided and supervised by mentors, who assist them in their early days at work. In the paper, we describe the fine-grained interaction mechanisms through which mentors exert an influence on the students' tasks, while they engage in educational activities involving children. These descriptions stress the often hidden and indirect means mentors use to bring work-related knowledge to the attention of learners in the conditions of work. In more general terms, the paper reflects on the contributions of an interactional analytic perspective to the understanding of mentoring practices in vocational education. It argues that the lack of social recognition that is often associated to the mentor's role and activities can be related to the conditions in which such activities are accomplished in and through multimodal interactions.