What is ‘good’ mentoring? Understanding mentoring practices of teacher induction through case studies of Finland and Australia

Abstract

Mentoring is a practice widely utilised to support new teachers. However, in locally formed systems, the practice of mentoring is conditioned by traditions and arrangements specific to the site. To understand ‘good’ mentoring, these local arrangements cannot be ignored. In this article, the theory of practice architectures is employed to make explicit the prefiguring arrangements of mentoring practices in Finland and NSW Australia. The findings suggest that mentoring practices are shaped by their ontological specificity and this makes reproducing mentoring practices in different sites problematic. Explicating the prefiguring architectures of practices is critical to understanding the contested nature of mentoring.

Keywords:

• mentoring
• teacher induction
• new teachers
• social practice
• practice theory

Notes

1. New Scheme Teacher refers to a category of teachers in NSW who were employed after October 2004 or returned to duty after a long absence (five years or more) after this date. These teachers, under the guidelines of the Teacher Accreditation Act of 2004 and the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards Act, were expected to complete an accreditation process in the first five years after their appointment or return to duty. This is part of the NSW Department of Education and Communities requirements for employment and approval to teach in NSW (https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/policies/employment/recruit/tchr_acred/PD20050165.shtml).

2. The Smarter Schools National Partnerships Programme funding was provided to schools by the Australian Government via state and territory governments. The funding was to be used to address disadvantage, support teachers and school leaders and improve literacy and numeracy outcomes (http://smarterschools.gov.au/).

3. There are obvious differences in the ways in which the voice of participants in the Finnish and Australian data were presented. In the Finnish data, no pseudonyms were used because these reflected a composite of participants’ ideas captured through the fictional stories created by the participants. In the Australian data, pseudonyms were used as these reflected the participants’ individual perspectives.

4. Higher School Certificate (HSC) is a an end of secondary school qualification awarded to students in Years 11 and 12 in NSW.

5. The middle ground positioning (that is, somewhere in the continuum between transmissive and more collaborative models) of ‘good mentoring’ at Hilltop High reflected a growing orientation in NSW public schools towards more site-based practices for professional development and capacity building. These gestures towards more collaborative mentoring were mirrored in controversial statewide policies such as Local Schools: Local Decisions, where principals recently have been given the authority (and by implication autonomy) and funding to determine the forms of professional learning and support relevant to them and their school context.