Understanding mentoring of new teachers: Communicative and strategic practices in Australia and Finland

Mentoring of new teachers as a contested practice: Supervision, support and collaborative self-development

Abstract This article examines contested practices of mentoring of newly qualified teachers within and between Australia (New South Wales), Finland and Sweden. Drawing on empirical evidence from a variety of studies, we demonstrate three archetypes of mentoring: supervision, support and collaborative self-development. Using the theory of practice architectures, we show that (1) these three forms of mentoring represent three different projects: (a) assisting new teachers to pass through probation, (b) traditional mentoring as support, and (c) peer-group mentoring; and (2) these different projects involve and imply quite different practice architectures in the form of different material-econo…

Mentoring as Dialogue, Collaboration and/or Assessment?

In this chapter, some tensional trends within mentoring, which we call a contradiction between collaboration and assessment, are addressed. The aim is threefold: First, to describe and compare the development of mentoring programmes in Finland and Sweden at the system level; second, to illustrate how the various mentoring systems have been experienced by the persons involved; and third, to discuss the political and ideological circumstances and the possible effects of these solutions. The study is based on empirical data gathered in Finland and Sweden and examines the experiences of mentors and newly qualified teachers (NQTs) as well as the relevant national policies. The findings indicate …