Well-being and mentoring in pre-service teacher education: an integrative literature review

Abstract

Purpose

Mentoring is an essential tool for teacher education, not least because it allows knowledge and experience sharing. Research findings suggest a close relationship between mentoring and the well-being of those involved. However, little is known about this relationship or the mechanisms involved. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Through an integrative literature review, important links between mentor and mentee well-being and certain aspects of mentoring are explored. The results of the review are then synthesised into a theoretical framework.

Findings

The framework developed here posits that the well-being of teachers relates to the quality of mentoring. This includes teachers' perceptions of mentoring and their decision to get involved, their contributions to functional mentor–mentee relationships and the selection and use of mentoring styles that support both mentor and mentee well-being. Moreover, the framework hypothesises that the quality of mentoring received by mentees is related to their well-being, which is in turn connected to their professional development. Most of these relationships appear to be bidirectional, meaning that mentee well-being also contributes to mentoring quality and mentor well-being. Finally, it is hypothesised that the well-being of both mentors and mentees is connected to the school context in which the mentoring takes place.

Originality/value

This work provides a novel, comprehensive framework for future examinations of the connections between well-being and mentoring. It synthesises the prior work on this topic by integrating findings from both the mentor and mentee perspectives into a single framework.

Citation

Dreer-Goethe, B. (2023), "Well-being and mentoring in pre-service teacher education: an integrative literature review", International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 336-349. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-09-2022-0073

Introduction

Research has established that the job-related well-being of teachers is an important factor in their professional practice. This relates, in particular, to the social and emotional aspects of their work, often in interaction with others, especially their students and colleagues (Bilz et al., 2022; McCallum and Price, 2010, 2016). Carroll et al. (2021) investigated the downstream effects of teacher well-being and found that changes in well-being affect teachers' instructional quality and their students' well-being. This is in accordance with theoretical considerations regarding the potential effects of teacher well-being. With their model of the prosocial classroom, Jennings and Greenberg (2009) postulated a link between teacher and student well-being. The authors built their framework on the general depiction of teaching as a social profession involving interactions that both rely on and contribute to the well-being of the parties involved. The model proposes that teacher well-being promotes healthy teacher–student relationships, effective classroom management and the use of effective teaching methods. Moreover, the model also forwards the assumption that said aspects of teacher behaviour (relationships, classroom management and choice of methods) are relevant for a healthy classroom climate which contributes to social, emotional and academic student outcomes. Importantly, the relationships in the model are presented as bidirectional, meaning that the students' well-being also affects the classroom climate and the teachers' well-being.

Mentoring is an important tool in supporting teacher development across different career stages (Daly and Milton, 2017; Oberholzer, 2020). Like teaching, it involves a more experienced party and a less experienced one and social interactions between them that rely on and contribute to their well-being (Hollweck, 2019). The topic of well-being in mentoring, particularly in initial teacher education and in relation to early career teachers, has gained interest and is slowly emerging as a dedicated research area (Kutsyuruba and Godden, 2019). There is mounting evidence that mentoring and well-being are interlinked in multiple ways (e.g. Cherkowski and Walker, 2019; Dreer, 2021b; Hobson, 2020; Hollweck, 2019; Squires, 2019). The term teacher well-being has been defined as “teachers' responses to the cognitive, emotional, health and social conditions pertaining to their work and their profession” (Viac and Fraser, 2020, p. 18). It includes the well-being of student teachers, who, during their mandatory field experiences at practice schools, are supposed to gain authentic experience and immerse themselves in teachers' real-life roles and tasks (McCallum and Price, 2016). In what follows, the term mentor well-being refers to the job-related well-being of the teacher mentor, while the term mentee well-being refers to the job-related well-being of the student teacher mentee.

Unlike the connections between teacher and student well-being, the links between mentor and mentee well-being have not yet been substantiated in an overarching comprehensive framework (Morse et al., 2022), thereby hampering their systematic examination and a proper understanding of the mechanisms involved. Guided by theory on the links between teacher and student well-being and based on an integrative review of the relevant literature, this work examines the connections between mentor and mentee well-being and integrates the insights gained into a comprehensive framework. It first examines the findings from the mentor's and mentee's perspectives and proceeds to integrate them. Finally, this is followed by a discussion of the potential implications of the outlined framework for further research and practice.

Integrative literature review

Methodology

Research on the interconnectedness of mentoring and well-being represents an emerging research field. This work addresses the need for a synthesis and conceptualisation of the expanding knowledge base in this area (Kutsyuruba and Godden, 2019). Therefore, it is conducted in the form of an integrative literature review. Torraco (2005) explained that the integrative literature review is “a form of research that reviews, critiques, and synthesizes representative literature on a topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic are generated” (p. 354). Accordingly, it is not the goal of this work to evaluate every aspect of the previous literature but to focus on representative works exploring the connections between mentoring and well-being. In contrast to other forms of reviews such as the narrative review or the systematic review, this integrative review does not strive to collect and showcase all of the existing empirical literature. Rather, it sets out to integrate a wide range of inquiry, including the review of theoretical concepts (Toronto, 2020).

Following the recommendations of Torraco (2005), research articles for the integrative review were identified using major databases and repositories, including Google Scholar, Scopus, EBSCO-host and ResearchGate. The search included the terms “teacher” OR “student teacher” OR “teacher education” AND “mentoring” OR “mentor” OR “mentee” AND “well-being” OR “job satisfaction” OR “emotional exhaustion”. The selection process comprised a screening for relevancy and a quality appraisal of the preselected publications (Lawless and Foster, 2020). For a publication to be deemed relevant, it had to have focused on schoolteachers and addressed connections between well-being and mentoring. Thus, works focussing solely on the effects of mentoring on students' well-being were excluded. Likewise, papers were excluded if they investigated either well-being or mentoring and simply commented on the other. For a relevant publication to be included in the selection, it had to satisfy the following quality criteria, which are standard for most appraisal checklists regarding review quality (Katrak et al., 2004; Remington, 2020): It had to be (1) a publication reporting research or presenting concepts/theory, (2) a peer-reviewed work and/or (3) published by a publisher renowned for high standards. This led mostly to the exclusion of grey literature, policy papers, practical guides and mentoring handbooks. As a result of the assessment process, 58 works were selected for the review, nine of which were not discovered in the initial search and were later added because of their supplementary value and the fact that they satisfied the quality criteria.

In order to systematically report and synthesise the contents of all the selected articles, this review adhered to the guidelines of the American Psychological Association (APA, 2001) and arranged the components of the review by content and relationship rather than sequence. Two main perspectives emerged from analysing the literature: (1) the perspective of mentors and their well-being and (2) the perspective of mentees and their well-being. The presentation of the discovered works is therefore organised around these two perspectives. As is typical of an integrative review, the results are not displayed in tabular form but are presented in writing and by “analysing the literature and arriving at specific conclusions about it” (Torraco, 2005, p. 361). Another typical aspect of integrative reviews is that the perspectives are integrated into a comprehensive framework of relationships at the end.

The mentor's perspective

There are various reasons why experienced teachers mentor student teachers. Some of the important motives appeared to centre on boosting their professional self-image (e.g. as being responsible for next-generation teachers), accruing possible benefits for their work (e.g. more freedom of action by having another teacher in the classroom) and pursuing professional development (e.g. garnering opportunities to reflect on their work) (Walkington, 2005; Schnebel, 2014; van Ginkel et al., 2016). Teacher well-being was also found to be a significant motive. Teachers tend to regard the provision of teacher education as one way of addressing their occupational well-being (Kuhn et al., 2022; Richter et al., 2021) and as an opportunity to address work stagnation and break routines (Schnebel, 2014). Mentoring can make positive contributions not only to the school community (Cherkowski and Walker, 2019) but also to mentor well-being because it can help mentors secure functional relationships, experience positive emotions and gain a sense of accomplishment (Hollweck, 2019). Furthermore, job satisfaction and organisational commitment seem to benefit profoundly from engaging in mentoring (Ghosh and Reio, 2013). However, excessive and unsuccessful mentoring efforts can also compromise teacher well-being and, depending on the initial level of well-being, cause stress and exhaustion (Chun et al., 2012).

Based on theoretical considerations, Frenzel (2014) concluded that teachers who more often have positive experiences in their everyday school life are better able to build functional relationships, are more open to new experiences and to the use of new methods and are more flexible in dealing with obstacles. However, they found that teachers who experience more negative emotions in the workplace are less likely to be open to new teaching methods and experiences, especially if the positive outcomes are not guaranteed. When applied to mentoring, which demands a certain level of openness to new experiences and may entail uncertainty and more work to build functional relationships (Martinez, 2004; Walkington, 2005), these conclusions suggest that teachers who experience well-being tend to be more interested in and committed to mentoring prospective teachers. If the commitment to mentoring is voluntary, job-related well-being may be an important basis for teachers' decision to get involved. If there is an obligation to mentor, it is expected that teachers with higher well-being will be more open to the task, better able to build functional relationships with their mentees and more successful in dealing with the challenges of mentoring. This also implies that mentors with a higher level of job-related well-being can benefit more from the positive effects of mentoring. These effects include a strengthened identity as a teacher, functional relationships with their students and colleagues and increased knowledge in areas such as pedagogy, communication and the use of digital technologies (e.g. Clarke et al., 2014; Davies et al., 1999; Hobson, 2020; Lopez-Real and Kwan, 2005; Templeton, 2003). Ultimately, teachers' job-related well-being can be linked to their ability to grow in their roles as mentors and to provide quality support in accordance with the support needs of their mentees – which is what successful mentors do (Beck and Kosnik, 2002; Hobson et al., 2009).

Several researchers have contended that at the heart of successful mentoring lies a positive and responsive professional mentor–mentee relationship that supports the formulation of realistic development goals and constructive feedback regarding practical experiences (e.g. Broad and Muhling, 2017; Dreer, 2020; Orland-Barak and Wang, 2020; Squires, 2019). To help improve the quality of this relationship, mentors need to be committed to their tasks and roles (Allen and Eby, 2008) and understand that the social and emotional aspects are integral to mentoring work (Hobson, 2020; Hoffman et al., 2015). Clarke et al. (2022) argued that a positive mentor–mentee relationship can mitigate some of the challenges faced by beginning teachers and provide resources for the well-being of both mentors and mentees. Hollweck (2019) further found that the quality and effectiveness of the mentor–mentee relationship are determining factors of mentor well-being.

Orland-Barak and Wang (2020) conducted a review of numerous research papers and identified four basic conceptual approaches to mentoring: a situated learning approach, a core practice approach, a critical transformative approach and a personal growth approach. In contrast to the other approaches, personal growth-oriented mentoring focuses on the mentees and their professional development in relation to their current development stage. This style of mentoring has its roots in humanistic psychology, which has produced prominent concepts such as basic psychological needs (Maslow, 1943; Ryan and Deci, 2000). At the core of the approach are three assumptions: (1) that psychological and emotional support are important for the development of a positive self-image and for the professional development of prospective teachers, (2) that personal growth is a staged process that requires the fulfilment of specific needs to reach the next stage and (3) that the development of professional competencies is strongly connected to the development of self-efficacy beliefs and a professional identity, including personal ideas and motives. Therefore, in the personal growth approach, mentors are sensitive to the psychological and emotional needs of their mentees and help them achieve need fulfilment. Furthermore, mentors empower their mentees to develop and try out their own ideas about school and teaching and hesitate to proffer their own ideas or give directive advice.

Empirical findings suggest that this style of mentoring is closely connected to mentee well-being. For example, Burger et al. (2021) showed that a constructivist approach to mentoring is positively related to the mentees' perceived fulfilment of their autonomy and competence needs and that high autonomy is associated with reduced emotional exhaustion in student teachers. This impact pathway suggests that an autonomy-granting mentoring style can have desirable effects on prospective teachers' well-being. The results of other studies (i.e. Dreer, 2020; Evelein et al., 2008; Korthagen and Evelein, 2016) have shown that student teachers can be more successful in attaining the goals of their field experiences if their psychological need fulfilment is supported. Interestingly, it has also been noted that adopting a personal growth-oriented style can be beneficial to mentor well-being as it is associated with experiencing efficacy and hope (Lowery, 2019).

To date, a thorough examination of the factors influencing teachers' adoption of a certain mentoring style has been absent in teacher education research (Burger et al., 2021). However, the informative findings of van Ginkel et al. (2016) suggest that mentors' motives for engaging in mentoring are connected to their mentoring approaches. For example, teachers who chose to be mentors in order to learn and develop or to share their experiences with the next generation of educators were more likely to engage in a developmental (personal growth-oriented) style. Even though student teachers clearly articulate their need for emotional support during their school practicum (Beck and Kosnik, 2002), their emotions and psychological needs are less often considered during mentoring (He, 2009; Hennissen et al., 2008; Hobson, 2020; Orland-Barak and Wang, 2020). Previous studies on mentor–mentee matching have indicated that expertise, attitudes and interpersonal skills may be crucial to the alignment between what the mentor offers and what the mentee needs (Callahan, 2016). Importantly, mentor well-being is a significant mental resource for selecting and maintaining more personal and needs-related mentoring styles, which can involve higher rates of emotional labour (Burić and Frenzel, 2020).

Finally, it has been highlighted that mentor well-being and mentoring quality depend on the school context in which the mentoring takes place (Attard Tonna, 2019; Milton et al., 2020). A school climate that welcomes future teachers and values experienced teachers' engagement in mentoring can be beneficial in this regard (Kuhn et al., 2022).

The mentee's perspective

There are myriad reasons why field experiences during initial teacher education challenge the well-being of student teachers. In the field, student teachers are confronted with tasks and demands that differ substantially from the familiar requirements of their university classes and exams (Zeichner, 2010, 2012). For example, in the field, they are faced with new situations, such as dealing with classroom disturbances and communicating with parents (Dicke et al., 2018; Veenman, 1984). Moreover, student teachers' field experiences are often accompanied by their university work assignments, which can further increase their workload, especially if the assignments are perceived as being in misalignment with everyday school life (e.g. Imhof and Picard, 2009). Besides the workload involved, field experiences pose a potential threat to student teachers' self-image, which may be challenged by the results of their self-exploration or self-reflection or the receipt of potentially critical feedback (Bjørndal, 2020; Meyer and Kiel, 2014). If too little attention is paid to the emotional and psychological needs of student teachers, they may feel isolated, discouraged and demoralised (Hobson and Malderez, 2013; Hobson et al., 2008; Lofthouse and Thomas, 2014). However, their well-being during their field experiences can enable them to value and make use of the support they receive and fully exploit the attendant learning potential. The results of a plethora of research have highlighted that student teacher well-being is connected to important outcomes with respect to their professional development. These include reported learning gains, teaching behaviour, self-efficacy beliefs, values, motivation, sense of competence, job satisfaction and job retention (Aldrup et al., 2017; Dreer, 2020; Evelein et al., 2008; Fagan and Walter, 1982; García-Lázaro et al., 2022; Kaplan and Madjar, 2017; Keller-Schneider, 2016; Kessels, 2010; Korthagen and Evelein, 2016). In light of the prospective benefits of supporting the well-being of student teachers during their field experiences and the potential drawbacks of not doing so, there appears to be an urgent need for effective measures aimed at supporting student teacher well-being (McCallum and Price, 2016).

A Canadian study involving over 1,300 participants examined the links between mentoring and the well-being of beginning teachers (Kutsyuruba et al., 2019). The results demonstrated that, on average, the well-being of the prospective teachers who had mentors was higher than that of the prospective teachers who did not have mentors. A positive correlation was thus found between mentoring and the well-being of prospective teachers. This connection was even stronger when the mentees reported good relationships with their mentors. A link between mentor–mentee relationship quality and student teacher mentee well-being was also established in a longitudinal study (Dreer, 2021b). It showed that the quality of the mentor–mentee relationships at the beginning of 15-week-long student teacher field experiences could predict the student teachers' well-being towards the end of the field experiences. Thus, student teacher well-being benefits from teachers who (actively) engage in mentoring and strive to foster a healthy mentor–mentee relationship. However, it was also shown that the student teachers were not only on the receiving end of this professional relationship as they actively engaged in co-creating their field experiences and building relationships with their mentors. Nevertheless, their active engagement seemed to depend on their well-being and need satisfaction (Dreer, 2022). Consequently, student teacher well-being appears to be bidirectionally linked to student teachers' relationships with their mentors. This means that student teachers' well-being can benefit from healthy relationships with mentors and that this well-being can also enable them to contribute to such relationships.

In addition to functional mentor–mentee relationships, mentee well-being can also benefit from the mentees' experience of and active participation in certain mentoring styles. García-Lázaro et al. (2022) conducted a mixed-methods study and argued that a caring mentoring style can improve the well-being of student teachers and mitigate stressful situations that may arise during their field experiences. Other studies (e.g. Burger et al., 2021; He, 2009; Richter et al., 2013; Voss et al., 2017) have shown that student teachers' well-being can benefit from strength-based and constructivist-oriented mentoring. Conversely, problem-based and overly critical or judgemental mentoring styles can compromise or endanger mentee well-being (Bjørndal, 2020; Hobson, 2016, 2020; Hobson and Malderez, 2013).

Mentee well-being, which has so far been linked to being mentored (as opposed to not having a mentor), a healthy relationship with one's mentor and certain mentoring styles that support well-being are also dependent on other factors from the school environment. For example, a welcoming school climate, leadership support and assistance from the delegating universities must also be considered (Dreer, 2021a; Kuhn et al., 2022).

Synthesis

The preceding literature review highlighted significant links between mentor and mentee well-being and mentors' and mentees' engagement in mentoring. On one hand, well-being appears relevant in relation to teachers' perception of mentoring and their decision to engage in it. Furthermore, mentor well-being is connected to the mentor's contributions to a healthy relationship with their mentee and to the selection and retention of mentoring styles that support the mentee's well-being. On the other hand, the well-being of student teacher mentees appears to be relevant for the mentee's perception of mentoring, their contributions to a healthy relationship with their mentor and their participation in mentor support offers. Moreover, the well-being of both mentors and mentees seems to be linked to the school context in which the mentoring takes place.

To synthesise these links into a comprehensive framework, the prosocial classroom model (Jennings and Greenberg, 2009), which describes the relationship between teacher and student well-being, was used as a precedent. Accordingly, two important paths were identified (see Figure 1). In the first path (black arrows), mentor well-being predicts mentoring quality, including the mentor's perceptions of mentoring (e.g. motives and decision to engage in mentoring), contributions to their relationship with their mentee (e.g. trust building, support for mentee autonomy) and engagement in mentoring styles that support mentee well-being (e.g. personal growth approaches). Furthermore, mentoring quality predicts mentee well-being, which is in turn connected to the mentee's professional development (e.g. learning gains, self-efficacy beliefs, motivation, job satisfaction). In the second path (grey arrows), mentee well-being predicts the mentee's perceptions of mentoring (e.g. value of teacher education, decision to participate in mentoring and receipt of feedback), contributions to their relationship with their mentor (e.g. trust building, use of autonomy) and participation in mentoring styles that support their well-being (e.g. development of own ideas, use of feedback). In turn, these quality aspects of mentoring can predict mentor well-being, which is linked to the professional development of the teacher mentor. Consequently, the framework proposes that well-being on both ends of the dyad is an important factor in mentoring success and effectiveness and is connected to the professional development of both the mentor and mentee. Moreover, the framework suggests that various other factors, especially from the school context, influence mentor and mentee well-being. Factors relating to the school context (white arrows) may include the school climate, community culture, shared goals, offers of professional training and school leadership.

Implications for further research

The framework presented here formulates specific hypotheses that enable a systematic examination of the proposed relationships. Because such a framework was not available before, previous research frequently investigated the topic through exploratory approaches that mostly led to exploratory and correlational evidence. The framework will now help to theoretically substantiate the scattered findings from previous studies and to merge these insights into a bigger picture of mentoring and well-being. It also provides a solid basis for employing specific research designs and methods to gather evidence on causal relationships between the identified variables. Cross-lagged panel designs and path models that are typically used to examine bidirectional relationships (e.g. Pakarinen et al., 2021; Saeri et al., 2018; ten Bokkel et al., 2021) should also be deployed in studying this model's assumptions. Thus, a quantitative method involving longitudinal data and a cross-lagged design seems appropriate to test the proposed hypotheses. A respective approach would comprise an assessment of all the variables in the framework at two or more intervals (Kenny, 2014). Gathering data in this way would allow, for example, an assessment of the extent to which the mentor's well-being contributes to the relationship with the mentee while also cross-checking the extent to which the mentee's well-being impacts said relationship. The framework's variables could be operationalised in various ways. Teacher well-being could be measured using the PERMA profiler (Butler and Kern, 2016) or Warr's (1999) concept of workplace well-being. Perceptions of mentoring could be captured using the perception scale of Eby et al. (2008) and engagement in mentoring could be assessed using functional tools from the business or educational sectors (Chen et al., 2016). Furthermore, mentoring relationships could be assessed using other dedicated instruments (e.g. Nakkula and Harris, 2013).

In addition, qualitative data from interviews with mentors and mentees and group discussions involving the mentoring dyad could be particularly helpful for in-depth analyses of the mechanisms behind the relationships. For example, the narrative interview could shed light on the reasons for the initial decision to get involved in mentoring and the perceived changes to the well-being during the process (Leong and Tan, 2013). Furthermore, researchers could implement direct observational methods (e.g. job shadowing) to gain deeper insights into how mentoring is conducted and what influences it (Pryce et al., 2021). Observing the well-being of the individuals engaged in the process could also be a crucial aspect to consider (Dreer-Goethe, 2023).

As several works (e.g. Langdon et al., 2019; Milton et al., 2020) have highlighted that schools constitute a complex backdrop in influencing mentoring practices, researchers should endeavour to include this context in their investigation of mentoring and well-being. Again, longitudinal approaches and qualitative research methods, such as network analysis (Baker-Doyle and Yoon, 2020), could be very helpful in this regard.

Above all, field experiments could be conducted to determine the impacts of the identified variables. Drawing on the work of Lester et al. (2011), one approach could be to systematically enhance the well-being of one party of the mentoring dyad (e.g. by intervention) and investigate how this influences the perception of mentoring, the contributions to the relationship, the engagement in certain mentoring styles and, subsequently, the well-being of the other party.

While the relationships outlined in the aforementioned framework were mostly generated from teacher education research, they might not be limited to the context of teacher education. Therefore, it would be interesting to see mentoring studies outside the teacher education field adopt, adapt and test the framework outlined in this work. This could include research on mentoring in education, like youth mentoring and mentoring in sports or mentoring in business contexts like mentoring in enterprises, medicine or law.

Implications for practice

Mentoring is an important tool for teacher education. However, it can be effective only under certain conditions. The results of this work suggest that teacher well-being plays an important role and should be considered in mentor selection, preparation and supervision. For example, mentor selection processes could invite candidates to reflect on their job-related well-being and well-being-related motives in order to engage in mentoring during formal or informal conversations (Weimer, 2021). This could help sensitise teachers to the importance of their mental health prior to engaging in this type of close collaboration. Furthermore, mentor selection could be enhanced by dedicated selection scales (e.g. Rose, 2003), which may be tailored to include certain aspects of well-being. Mentor preparation and qualification should address the topic of well-being, instruments of support and the relevance of mentoring quality (e.g. certain mentoring styles) with regard to mentee well-being. The potential impact of well-being on one's work as a mentor and subsequently on the well-being of the mentee should be the subject of mentors' training efforts and should therefore be included in handbooks, course curricula and other materials (Cherkowski and Walker, 2019). Because of the potential impact of mentors' work on student teachers, they should have continuous access to supervision or mentoring so as to support the reflection on and improvement of their work-related well-being. The beneficial effects of mentoring or supervision for mentors have been highlighted in the literature (e.g. Schneider, 2008) and could be used more actively to address the issues related to mentor well-being and to emotional labour.

Considering the evidence regarding the relevance of functional and healthy mentor–mentee relationships and personal growth approaches to mentoring, mentor training should be transformed to specifically address these topics and to train mentors in using effective approaches. Growth-oriented mentoring concepts such as ONSIDE mentoring (Hobson, 2020), which offer a scientific foundation for mentor training, have recently been developed and could be useful in this regard.

Because mentee well-being was identified as important for the success of mentoring, universities should develop and provide measures to ensure or even bolster the well-being of student teachers prior to and alongside their field experiences. For example, this could be achieved by implementing dedicated courses (e.g. Dreer, 2021a). Crucially, in preparation for their field experiences, student teachers should be made aware that their own mentoring-related behaviours could affect their mentors' well-being and that they have a role to play in fostering healthy relationships with their mentors. Mentees could be trained in building and maintaining professional mentor–mentee relationships (Dreer, 2022). Most importantly, universities should educate student teachers on how to address their job-related well-being early and constantly enable them to capitalise on their practical experiences and initial teacher education in its totality (McCallum and Price, 2016).

Teacher well-being can also be regarded as an important subject of mentoring (Hennissen et al., 2008). Mentors can actively contribute to well-being education in at least three ways. First, they can act as role models (Lunenberg et al., 2007) who exemplify desirable behaviours when dealing with job-related demands. For example, by establishing rest breaks throughout the day, mentors can demonstrate the importance of breaks to mentees and how these can contribute to their recovery. Second, mentors can pass on their experiences and values regarding well-being to their mentees through learning dialogues (Beek et al., 2019). For example, they can report their responses to challenging events to their mentees anecdotally and speak about the impacts of such responses and other helpful regulative strategies. Third, mentors can encourage their mentees to share their observations and experiences regarding job-related well-being and to reflect on their insights during mentoring conversations (Timperley, 2001) designed to promote learning among student teachers in this area.

Figures

Figure 1

Framework of relationships between well-being and mentoring in pre-service teacher education