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In recent years mentoring has been promoted as an essential, yet complex, new teacher induction dynamic. Mentors generally develop their knowledge of this role in isolation and in situ, and despite extensive research in the field few studies investigate how mentors learn. Therefore it is important to continue to examine the complex aspects of learning to mentor. The purpose of this paper is to focus on understanding the knowledge, attitudes and skills required by mentors to simultaneously focus on their own learning, new teachers’ learning and student learning.

In this New Zealand study the authors examined a pilot programme aimed at shifting mentoring practices to an educative model. Through a two-year professional development intervention, 22 participant mentors inquired into, analysed and documented their practice. Data were gathered through learning conversations, action research documentation and reflections. They were analysed using qualitative methodology.

Evident was a shift in mentoring practice from a focus on the transmission of knowledge-for-practice to inquiry into knowledge-of-practice. Change was observed after sustained and serious engagement with evidence about mentoring practices. However the shifts did not come easy, nor were they assured.

This study is not without limitations. Transferability is potentially problematic. The pilot study was well resourced, therefore expecting the implementation and outcomes to transfer to other contexts without similar resourcing maybe unrealistic.

The findings contributed to the development of a mentoring curriculum and national guidelines for mentoring new teachers.

While the findings emerged from a situated context, the theoretical and practice issues reported are matters for international attention, particularly the matter of transitioning from a well-practiced, efficient teacher mentor to an adaptive educative mentor.

This study investigated the conceptions of governance that informed the practices of school trustees, and considered the extent to which those conceptions matched the policy imperatives that shaped New Zealand's school governance framework.

Semi‐structured interviews were undertaken with 32 participants in the governance of New Zealand primary schools. The interviews were structured around four scenarios that described the work of a hypothetical Board. For each scenario, the participants were asked to rate how well the Board did its job and then asked to explain their ratings.

Conceptions of good governance were dominated by concerns about the quality of relationships and the effectiveness and efficiency of task completion. There was little evidence that educational or democratic values shaped governance activity.

These findings were derived from a small sample of 32 participants, drawn from a disadvantaged, multi‐cultural community. While their generalizability to all New Zealand primary school should not be assumed, the similarity of these themes to those reported in prior New Zealand surveys suggests that this sample may not be atypical.

The originality of this study is that it presents a methodology for discovering the extent to which key policy ideas are reflected in the understanding of those who are intended to carry them out.