Abstract:

The diversity of teacher roles has been a long-standing concern in the field of education in higher education institutions. Recent evidence suggests that new policy of ministry may be further raising expectations towards the roles of the teachers and teachers may not be prepared for that. Therefore, this article aims to discuss current teacher tasks and explore expectations for the roles of teachers to draw conclusion on directions of teacher education. Through detailed analysis of teacher responsibilities included in acts of higher education in India, the author determined tasks and organized them in roles. To address perceived gap in the literature on examining expectations of teacher roles, conducted survey mapped students’ perspective on teacher’s roles. The findings also revealed missing elements therefore new teacher role named mentorial has been conceptualized. In particular, participants consider teachers as supporting, guiding, motivating and leading students to grow. The concluding discussion of the findings provides thoughts on teacher education to enhance mentorial role.