Assisting Beginning Teachers and School Communities to Grow through Extended and Collaborative Mentoring Experiences

Source: Mentoring and Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, Volume 17, Issue 4  (November 2009), pages 317 – 327.

Mentoring as a strategy to assist and retain beginning teachers in the profession has been perceived as the panacea for reducing attrition rates. Whilst this may be true in many cases, mentoring alone has been unable to stem the flow of resignations.

In this essay on scholarship and teaching, the author explores surrounding mentoring programs. New ways of professional learning are suggested. These ways encompass mentoring within a whole school approach, with a particular focus on the school as a collaborative community of learners.