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This paper explored the perspectives of novice educators teaching multi-grade classes in primary schools, focusing on their challenges, their coping strategies, and the support mechanisms needed for effective teaching in such complex educational settings. Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory served as a theoretical lens for understanding the interconnectedness among novice educators and various subsystems, including classrooms, school policies, and educational regulations.  Data was collected from nine public schools in one of the circuits in the Limpopo Province. Purposive sampling was employed to select only nine novice educators who teach in multigrade settings. The data were thematically analysed. The findings indicate that novice educators faced significant challenges in multi-grade teaching, including lesson planning, equitable attention distribution, and maintaining student engagement. Despite these difficulties, they gradually developed resilience through experience, peer collaboration, and self-directed learning. The paper proposes a framework for strengthening support structures for novice educators, including structured mentorship programmes, professional development initiatives, and additional teaching resources.

Mentor-mentee meetings are seen as the backbone of any mentorship relationship between pre-service teachers and mentor teachers. Thus, this study examines the quality of mentor-mentee meetings between business studies Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) and their mentor teachers during teaching practice. This qualitative study is underpinned by the Experiential Learning Theory, and it is located within the interpretive paradigm.  An exploratory phenomenology was employed as its research design. A sample of twenty-one reflective narratives contained in business studies PSTs’ portfolio of evidence were analysed. Random sampling was used to identify twenty-one PoEs submitted by business studies PSTs engaged on their third-year teaching practice. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the raw data that was generated for the study. The study revealed that business studies PSTs were satisfied with the quality of mentor-meetings held during teaching practice. It emerged from the study that crucial aspects of mentoring such as classroom management, lesson planning, learner engagement as well the assessment and feedback were extensively covered during mentor-mentee meetings. The study recommends that ITE institutions make it mandatory for mentor teachers and PSTs to hold mentor-mentee meetings during teaching practice to enrich PSTs learning experiences.