A comparative study of mentoring for new teachers

Teacher shortages and retention problems occur globally. This paper explores support for Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs), most notably the role of mentoring. Reasons for mentoring NQTs include combating isolation and fostering collaboration, enhancing professional practice and retaining teachers in the profession. We consider how three different national environments, and teacher induction programmes at national and local levels, provide support for new teachers into the teaching profession. We contrast the situation in Scotland, an early adopter of a national teacher induction scheme (2002), with that of Malta where an induction programme has been in place since 2010 and Denmark where there is no national scheme, but where support may be organised at a municipal or school level. We found that in all three countries there were challenges in the enactment of mentoring such as having time for observation and feedback but also in terms of how to mentor. Based on our findings we propose that both mentors and NQTs need time away from their teaching commitments to devote to their mentoring relationship. Furthermore, it would appear from our analysis that while a national induction scheme is important to promote the induction of NQTs, enhancing professional practice, combating isolation and fostering collaboration depends also on the kind of accommodating frameworks in schools.