Mentoring for educators’ professional learning and development

Abstract

Purpose: The author of this paper reviews and highlights key findings, themes and ideas from selected published academic papers on mentoring in education, with a specific focus on how mentoring can foster the professional learning and development of educators at all stages of their professional development. Design/methodology/approach: The author conducted a literature review of all the papers published in the International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, from volume 1, issue 1 (2012) to volume 4, issue 4 (2015), that contained the word "mentoring" in either the title, abstract and/or keywords and with a discussion of mentoring in the main text. In total, 37 papers were analysed in order to create a meta-synthesis of the primary findings. Findings: The findings present factors that foster mentoring success or failure. The purposes and components of mentoring programmes are diverse and contextually bound. Additionally, there is a tendency to view mentoring as a developmental relationship in which the mentor shares knowledge and expertise to support the mentee's learning and professional development. 2 Research limitations/implications: As this meta-synthesis literature review is focused on articles published in a single journal on mentoring, it has limited scope. However, the range of countries in which the authors of the reviewed empirical studies reside (13 countries), and the diversity of papers included in this review allowed the author to summarize and synthesize unique information for researchers and practitioners who are seeking to understand the process, outcomes and issues related to mentoring for the professional development of educators. Practical implications: The review provides information for those seeking to study and implement mentoring programmes. It focuses on mentoring for professional development of educators, identifies primary concepts in the literature reviewed and highlights new research areas in mentoring in education. Originality/value: This literature review discusses mentoring definitions from 37 different papers and contributes important knowledge to produce a picture of the intricacy of mentoring. Complex issues linked with mentoring are addressed, generating a critical systematization of mentoring research likely to have a lasting influence in the field.

Mentoring associate teachers in initial teacher education: the value of dialogic feedback

“…Over time, there is more reliance on a dialogic approach, with feedback being increasingly personalised and critical in relation to more challenging aspects of teaching and learning. As feedback is developmental and contextually bound (Castanheira, 2016), mentors adapt and refine their approach in relation to the needs of the AT and in doing so face the challenge of nurturing and judging progress at the same time. Mentors are seemingly in a somewhat contradictory position as the conventions of ITE mean that they are required to formally assess ATs while also being expected to nurture their development through supportive and non-evaluative relationships (Hobson, 2016).…”

Open Education for a Better World: A Mentoring Programme Fostering Design and Reuse of Open Educational Resources for Sustainable Development Goals

“…Mentoring is used as an important resource in professional learning (Tillema & Van der Westhuizen, 2013) and education is one of the fields where it is not only widely used, but also intensively investigated (Anderson & Shannon, 1988;Castanheira, 2016). It can be carried out in different forms, one of them being e-mentoring (Ensher & Murphy, 2007), called also online mentoring.…”

Leveraging a Handbook for Principal Mentoring: Pathways in a District Context

“…Castanheira (2016) noted that successful mentoring programs need to consider both the surrounding environment and the cultural context of an organization. These factors influence how mentoring relationships evolve and meet with success based upon who participates and what mentoring activities occur (Kent, Kochan, & Green, 2013; Lunsford, 2017).…”

“…When an organization has a mentoring culture, it tends to increase the mentoring that occurs by providing more opportunities for mentoring (Fletcher, 2007;Kram, 1983). Castanheira (2016) noted that successful mentoring programs need to consider both the surrounding environment and the cultural context of an organization. These factors influence how mentoring relationships evolve and meet with success based upon who participates and what mentoring activities occur (Kent, Kochan, & Green, 2013;Lunsford, 2017).…”

“…R. Garvey and Alred (2001) add that the organizational environment can influence the goals chosen and whether the relationship is goal focused. Conversations between mentors and mentees about goals lead to expectation setting and may evolve over the course of the relationship with both setting goals as colearning and codevelopment occur (Castanheira, 2016;Zachary, 2012). There are studies connecting the goals of a district's mentoring program to the goals of the organization that suggest that this is a structure contributing to the success of mentoring programs (Dominguez, 2017;Kochan, 2002).…”