Educative mentoring: From policy to practice

Abstract

While studies have shown that mentoring supports beginning teacher development, few investigations have examined how mentors are supported to meet the raised expectations inherent in current induction and mentoring policy. Often the multiple factors, including resourcing, context and leadership, that collude to influence how mentors learn to mentor are ignored. To address such concerns, this article draws on an analysis of surveys and interview data collected during the study of a New Zealand, national primary and intermediate school induction and mentoring pilot. A particular focus was the role played by school leaders in the implementation of educative mentoring. The pilot programme and research study were implemented within the wider policy context of new guidelines for induction and mentoring, introduced by the New Zealand Teachers Council. The investigation used a case study approach in six schools and involved 134 participants. We found that mentors cannot enact educative mentoring on their own. Unless the context is conducive to learning, and recognises the complexity of the mentoring role, mentors are unlikely to move beyond advice and guidance to meet expectations associated with educative mentoring. School leadership is critical to this shift and the successful translation of educative mentoring from policy to practice.