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The purpose of this paper is to explore beginning teachers’ perceptions of the role of the mentor in the early stages of developing a professional identity. The beginning teachers in the authors’ study are defined as having been awarded qualified teacher status at the end of an initial teacher education programme or having completed their first term as a new teacher with responsibility for a class of pupils.

The research design was a qualitative, inductive study. The concepts of communities of practice, legitimate peripheral participation and power dynamics within a community underpinned this study. The data set was collected over a period of 18 months, through six focus groups and 40 questionnaires with beginning teachers across 34 schools altogether. The data set was analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA).

The findings indicated that the ways in which mentors use their power to recognise (or not) the legitimacy of beginning teachers as being part of the school community influences the development of beginning teachers’ professional identities. The thematic analysis of the data indicated the different types of support that mentors may provide: “belonging”, “emotional”, “pedagogical” and “space”.

Further research into how mentors perceive their role in supporting new entrants into the profession is needed.

These findings are pertinent in England, as the increase in school-based initial teacher training provision will intensify the role of school mentors. These findings will be of value to other countries that are moving towards an increase in school-based teacher training.

The aims of this critical review are to identify the mentor characteristics that lead to superior mentoring outcomes and to provide human resources development (HRD) professionals with evidence-based suggestions for recruiting, selecting and training mentors to improve mentorship programme effectiveness.

The authors conducted a critical review of existing quantitative research on mentor characteristics that have an impact on effective mentoring.

The authors identified five key categories of mentor characteristics linked to successful mentoring outcomes: competency in context-relevant knowledge, skills and abilities; commitment and initiative; interpersonal skills; pro-social orientation and an orientation toward development, exploration and expansion.

There is limited research on the characteristics of ineffective mentor characteristics, exclusion of articles that used qualitative research methods exclusively and how technology-based communication in mentoring may require different characteristics. Most of the included studies collected data in the United States of America, which may exclude other important mentor characteristics from other non-Western perspectives.

To ensure that there is both a sufficient pool of qualified mentors and mentors who meet the desired criteria, focus on both recruitment and training mentors is important. Incorporating the desired mentor characteristics into both of these processes, rather than just selection, will help with self-selection and development of these characteristics.

Despite the ongoing interest in identifying effective mentor characteristics, the existing literature is fragmented, making this challenging for HRD professionals to determine which characteristics are crucial for mentoring relationships and programme success. Addressing this practical need, this critical review synthesises the research literature and identifies patterns and inconsistencies. Based on the review, the authors provide evidence-based recommendations to enhance the recruitment, selection and training of mentors.

Mentoring programmes for school administrators aim to facilitate learning by mentor‐protégé pairing. Selected vice‐principals are paired with experienced principals in protégé‐mentor pairs, for eight weeks of intensive mentoring in Singapore. Research suggests that mentoring programmes can be designed to benefit both mentors and protégés. Presents the results of a study on mentoring in Singapore. It highlights the benefits from mentoring and its correlates. Findings indicate that the behaviours and personal qualities of mentors and protégés could determine the benefits of mentoring.

This chapter contributes to the scholarship of teaching and learning in extracurricular enterprise and entrepreneurship education. It draws on research from two annual ‘Business Challenge Weeks’ (BCW) held at Oxford Brookes University in 2021 and 2022, in which teams of postgraduate students from three faculties worked on external client projects, supported by an academic mentor. It presents and discusses findings derived from a survey and interviews conducted after the second of these years. The chapter takes a transdisciplinary perspective, after Budwig and Alexander (2020), Piaget (1972) and Klein et al. (2001) and explores the relationship between this and the enterprise and entrepreneurship development pipeline set out by QAA (2018). It analyses the experiences of the three main participating groups engaged in the challenge weeks – students, external clients and academic mentors – and explores the organising challenges inherent in multiparty pedagogical initiatives. The chapter contributes to knowledge in this area by revealing and reflecting on the motivations and expectations of the three participant groups, the roles they played during the week and the outcomes they reported. It also expands understanding of transdisciplinary enterprise pedagogy.

The purpose of this convergent parallel mixed methods paper is to explore the mentoring experience within the context of a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) specific mentoring program for urban, at risk, high school youth, using the Principles of Adult Mentoring Inventory (PAMI) as an instrument that modeled effective mentoring behavior. The study took place at a large, urban, Midwestern university in the USA.

A research design was developed and both quantitative and qualitative data were collected in parallel, analyzed separately and then merged to determine results. The PAMI instrument that measures six constructs of mentor effectiveness was administered to STEM mentors as a pre/post-test and enabled researchers to collect quantitative data. Researchers used focus groups to collect qualitative data in the form of transcribed interviews. This study sought to inform STEM mentoring program development by collecting both qualitative and quantitative data independently and simultaneously in order to confirm findings. Researchers used a convergent parallel mixed methods design to first, reinforce and corroborate the findings given the small sample size (n=8); second, minimize alternative interpretations from data gathering and analysis, third, make clear various factors contributing to the effectiveness of STEM mentoring.

Throughout the mentoring experience, mentor perceptions of their mentoring abilities increased to be in the “more highly effective” range within PAMI. In five of the six constructs the results indicated mentors scored lower on the pre-test than they did on the post-test of the PAMI, meaning mentor perceptions of mentoring abilities improved overall during the course and the mentoring experience. Common themes from both quantitative and qualitative results were developed, are discussed using the PAMI constructs as organizers, and include communication, information, and gender differences.

This study added to the dearth of literature and investigations surrounding STEM mentoring. Many studies have concentrated primarily on mentoring but few have investigated the concept of STEM mentoring program best practices. The results of this study provided a multidimensional look at STEM mentoring programs that impact urban, at risk, high school youth.

The present study focused on an incubator model for the absorption of beginning teachers into the education system. This new model is based on the cooperative approach. The study examined mentoring perceptions among mentors. More specifically, the study investigated how mentors perceive the incubator and how mentors view the support provided to beginning teachers, as well as the contribution mentoring makes to fostering mentors' own sense of efficacy and professional development. These aspects were examined in comparison to the traditional dyadic model.

The study is based on quantitative and qualitative methods. In the quantitative study, 92 mentors working in incubators and 382 mentors working in a traditional dyadic setting responded to a self-report questionnaire. In the qualitative study, 28 mentors who were part of an incubator were interviewed.

The research findings indicate that the incubators create a dual effect of development and constitute a mantle of support that impacts the mentoring process, positions that as a dialogic–communal process and at the same time contributes to the professional development of both the beginning teachers and mentors.

The paper discusses the theoretical and practical contribution of the incubators as a new model for inducting beginning teachers into the profession.

The purpose of this qualitative review paper is to identify for practitioners ways of matching mentors and protégés to enhance the effectiveness of formal mentoring programs.

The paper qualitatively reviews the best available evidence of ways to match mentors and protégés to maximize mentorship outcomes.

Two factors to consider when making mentor–protégé matches emerged from the research literature (1) the matching process (i.e., how matches are made and facilitated by practitioners such as incorporating participant input on matches): and (2) individual characteristics (i.e., individual differences that may serve as matching criteria such as experiential, surface-level, and deep-level characteristics). This qualitative review resulted in three practical recommendations to practitioners interested in matching mentors and protégés using evidence-based methods: (1) match based on deep-level similarities, (2) consider developmental-needs of protégés during matching, and (3) seek mentors' and protégés’ input before finalizing matches.

Limitations of the research reviewed are highlighted: measures of perceived similarity, relative effectiveness of matching-related factors, limited research investigating the role of dissimilarity on mentoring outcomes, and linear relationship assumptions between matching-related factors and mentoring outcomes.

The authors’ recommendations suggested greater use of valid psychometric assessments to facilitate matching based on actual assessed data rather than program administrators' personal knowledge of mentors and protégés.

The literature on mentor–protégé matching is missing practical guidance on how to apply the research. This highlights a need for a qualitative review of the literature to identify what matching processes and criteria are most effective, providing a “one-stop-shop” for practitioners seeking advice on how to construct effective mentor–protégé matches in formal mentorship programs.

This study examined the effects of gender and pandemic concerns on mentorship seeking behavior during the pandemic caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and its relationship to self-efficacy.

This study analyzes the data collected from 253 academics in a quantitative survey administered online.

Women and those with higher levels of concern about the COVID-19 pandemic were more likely to seek mentorship. During this time of uncertainty role modeling was sought more than career support and psychosocial support. All three functions of mentorship seeking were positively associated with higher levels of self-efficacy.

The present study finds that individuals turn to mentors when they are concerned about macro-level events (e.g. a global pandemic). Additionally, individuals who self-identify as women sought mentorship to a greater extent than men. In this way, it is not only the situation that matters (like women having fewer resources and more demands than men) but also the perception of a situation (like how concerned individuals were about the COVID-19 pandemic). Additionally, this paper helps to further develop the understanding of the mentorship function of role modeling.

Organizations and mentors ought to be cognizant of role modeling during times of crisis, especially for women, this may be counterintuitive to the inclination to provide career and psychosocial support for mentees.

This study examines the gendered implications for mentoring during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study specifically examines mentorship seeking behavior and its influence on self-efficacy during uncertain times.

Presents some observations from both mentors and protégés who have been involved in a formal mentoring programme at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. Data showed that the mentor/protégé relationship is best initiated in an informal environment away from the school, that mentors should clearly communicate their expectations, that mentoring relationships move through developmental and interpersonal stages, and that the benefits of the relationship are reciprocal for the mentor, protégé, the organization, and the system. Presents some suggestions for mentoring programmes in their early stages of development.

Drawing on the social cognitive theory, this study investigated the effect of mentors' drinking norms on their protégés' alcohol misuse by focusing on the mediating role of conformity drinking motives and the moderating role of moral disengagement. We conducted a three-wave survey of 148 mentor–protégé dyads and found that mentors' drinking norms were positively related to their protégés' alcohol misuse and that this relationship was fully mediated by conformity drinking motives. Moreover, the moderated mediation model revealed that moral engagement strengthens the main effects of mentors' drinking norms on conformity drinking motives and the indirect effects of mentors' drinking norms on protégés' alcohol misuse via enhanced conformity drinking motives. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.