PurposThe purpose of this study was to explore young Arab women's understandings of mentoring as part of a pre-service teacher training program both before and after an extended internship throughout which a collaborative approach to mentoring was practiced. It aimed to identify the opportunities and challenges such an approach would bring in the quest to support trainee teachers' professional development.Design/methodology/approachData for this small-scale qualitative study were collected using a brainstorming class-based activity, semi-structured interviews and reflective journals. Data were analyzed using word clouds, and the identification of themes through the coding of transcripts.FindingsThe dominant findings in this study were that mentoring was perceived as emotional support, pedagogic and professional support, evaluation and relationship. While understandings of mentoring amongst participants did shift as a result of mentors adopting a collaborative approach, data indicated that the strength of cultural assumptions held by the participants hindered the rate of change, creating an obstacle to the desired outcome of increasing trainees' agency.Originality/valueWhile perceptions of mentoring reported within this study indicate considerable overlap with those in other geographical and cultural contexts, closer examination of the data identified differences also. Without an understanding of the nature and influence of the social assumptions that underlie these differences, mentors who participate in culturally diverse mentor–trainee pairings can misinterpret an unwillingness of trainees to fully engage with the mentoring process and thus fail to provide the required scaffolding and support needed to maximize professional development.