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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.

This paper aims to consider the practices and experiences of the new school-based mentors for Early Career Teachers (ECT's), emerging from the UK Government's new early career framework (ECF) policy (DfE, 2019a). The paper uses Lipsky's (2010) framing of professionals as “street level bureaucrats” to consider the extent to which the ECT mentors, as new policy actors, exercise professional discretion (Lipsky, 2010) in negotiating and aligning the new ECF policy with existing practice.

To research the mentor's interpretation and enactment of the new ECF policy, semi structured interviews were undertaken with an initial sample of nine mentors and four induction tutors who were also mentors. Online semi structured interviews were held, lasting around 50 min. This method was largely pragmatic as the study started during a period when schools were still cautious of face-to-face visitors in terms of COVID-19. Although the benefits for the interviewer experiencing the culture and context in which the ECT mentor was situated were lost, offering online interviews was critical in securing mentors' time.

Findings suggest a disconnect between the intentions of the policy and the reality of its enactment at a local level. The ECT mentors have limited professional discretion, but some are exercising this in relation to their own professional development and the training they are providing for their ECTs. Most of the mentors are adapting the ECT's professional development journey whilst mindful of the programme requirements. The degree to which the ECT mentors used professional discretion was linked and limited largely by their own levels of confidence and experience of mentoring, and to a lesser extent the culture of their schools.

The ECF policy represents an important step in acknowledging the need to professionally develop mentors for the work they undertake supporting beginning teachers. However, the time and the content of the mentor training have not been given sufficient attention and remains a hugely missed opportunity. It does not appear to be recognised by the government policy makers but more significantly and concerning in this research sample it is not being recognised sufficiently by those mentoring the ECTs themselves.

There is an urgent need by the UK government and school leaders to understand the link between the quality of mentor preparation and the quality of the ECTs who will be entering the profession and influencing the quality of education in future years. More time and resourcing need to be focussed on the professional development of mentors enabling them to exercise professional discretion in increasingly sophisticated ways in relation to the implementation of the ECF policy.

The ECF policy is the latest English government response to international concerns around the recruitment and retention of teachers. The policy mandates for a new policy actor: the ECT mentor, responsible for the support and professional development of beginning teachers. The nature of the mentor's role in relation to the policy is emerging and provides an interesting case study in the disconnect between the intentions of a policy and its initial enactment on the ground. The mentors may be viewed as street level bureaucrats exercising degrees of professional discretion as they interpret the policy in their own school context.

This article aims to present a unique dimension to mentor studies in that unlike most research that focuses on the novice-teachers-mentee, this study explores the influence of mentoring on the mentors themselves. Two main questions were examined: “Which components of mentoring influence the mentors' professional development?” and “What is the differential impact of each of these components as they are internalized by the mentors?”

A total of 765 mentors completed a questionnaire composed of 47 multiple-choice questions and an open-ended question describing the contribution of mentoring. The survey thus generated both quantitative and qualitative data.

The results show three main components of mentoring that influence mentors' professional development in the following order: personal–emotional, didactic knowledge and systemic–organizational. The findings also illustrate how the mentors used a comparison process to develop their professional perception: first, by comparing their role as a teacher and their role as a mentor, and second, by comparing their own professional identity as a teacher with that of the novice-teacher.

The implications of the study point to the importance of mentoring for mentors' professional development. Practical implications of this study encourage mentor training courses that combine a body of knowledge of theory and practice, as well as supervision and mentoring for mentors. It may be important for mentors to develop a professional identity as mentors that is distinct from their professional identity as teachers.

The implications of the study point to the importance of mentoring for mentors' professional development. Practical implications of this study encourage mentor training courses that combine a body of knowledge of theory and practice, as well as supervision and mentoring for mentors. It may be important for mentors to develop a professional identity as mentors that is distinct from their professional identity as teachers.

The manuscript attempts to explore the dynamic relationships within the mentoring process by investigating how mentoring impacts the development of mentors. It presents insights into the benefits of mentoring novice-teachers for the mentors themselves via analysis of a large-scale, nationwide study.

This article aims to contribute to a clearer understanding of the importance of mentor preparation and provide recommendations for effective mentor preparation programmes based on the literature.

A narrative review of a range of literature focussing on the importance and characteristics of effective mentor practice and preparation.

Many mentors working in educational contexts lack adequate preparation, and a shift in mentoring practice from a mentor as expert approach, which mentors are likely revert to without training, to a more collaborative relationship in line with educative mentoring is recommended. Relationship building, working collaboratively and encouraging critical reflection are essential mentoring capabilities, and can be supported by participation in effective mentoring preparation programmes. Characteristics of these programmes include: providing time for mentors to reflect on their personal capabilities and attitudes; strengthening their knowledge about mentoring and learning a range of approaches and tools.

Implications for mentor preparation include consideration of curricula that focus on the nature of effective mentoring relationships, provision of effective observation-based feedback and the facilitation of critical reflection. Blended learning models appear to have potential and organisational leaders need to recognise and value mentoring to ensure that it is prioritised.

This article makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the nature of effective mentor preparation programmes.

This paper aims to investigate how school-based mentors and preservice teachers (PTs) perceive mentoring conversations when applying a set of newly developed digital tools accompanied by discursive tools in mentoring in practicum.

This study performed a thematic analysis of 12 interviews (5 with mentors and 7 with PTs) to explore how the participants perceived mentoring conversations when applying a combination of digital and discursive tools in school-based mentoring conversations. This study uses a model of adaptive expertise to discuss the findings.

This analysis revealed that the tools could alter the typical order of mentoring conversations. Mentors reported a change in their mentoring routines in which mentees took a more active role in conversations. The use of tools also allowed for richer conversations. From the perspective of PTs, the tools provided a structure for mentoring sessions, provided an alternative opening for mentoring conversations and enhanced their awareness of certain aspects of their own teaching.

This study's results suggest that the application of tools in mentoring enhances mentoring by facilitating reflection among PTs and mentors and fostering the development of adaptive expertise.

Young offender mentoring programmes aim to support young people’s desistance from offending, but despite the importance, there remains limited exploration into mentor experiences of supporting the young people. This study aims to explore how a community-based mentoring intervention supports desistance in young offenders by understanding the mentor's experiences, with a specific reflective focus on facilitators and barriers to their work.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven mentors from Northumbria Coalition against Crime, a youth and community service. Interview transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, with external auditing conducted by the research supervisor.

Two superordinate themes resulted: “Factors for engagement” and “Personal experiences”, with participant disclosures reflecting professional reward and a sense of success. This was interwoven with “burnout”, emotional investment and challenges linked to barriers to effectiveness. Challenges included the young people having external negative influences, multiple individuals involved in a person’s care and the barrier of in person activities during the coronavirus pandemic. The clinical importance of mentoring programmes, implications for future working practice and research limitations are considered.

The clinical importance of mentoring programmes, implications for future working practice and research limitations are considered.

These findings contribute to understanding mentors’ experiences of working with young people in the community, offering critical insight into the mentorship and wider service dynamics. Furthermore, it provides an inaugural evaluation of the Northumbria Coalition against Crime services.

To contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, this study aims to explore how to encourage innovative green behaviors among college students and the mechanisms behind the formation of green innovation behavior. Specifically, this study examines the influences of schools, mentors and college students themselves.

A multilevel, multisource study involving 261 students from 51 groups generally supported this study’s predictions.

Proenvironmental and responsible mentors significantly predicted innovative green behavior among college students. In addition, creative motivation mediated the logical chain among green intellectual capital, emotional intelligence and green innovation behavior.

The study findings offer new insights into the conditions required for college students to engage in green innovation. In addition, they provide practical implications for cultivating green innovation among college students.

The authors proposed and tested a multilevel theory based on the ability–motivation–opportunity framework. In this model, proenvironmental and responsible mentors, green intellectual capital and emotional intelligence triggered innovative green behavior among college students through creative motivation.

Clinician engagement in research has positive impacts for healthcare, but is often difficult for healthcare organisations to support in light of limited resources. This scoping review aimed to describe the literature on health service-administered strategies for increasing research engagement by medical practitioners.

Medline, EMBASE and Web of Science databases were searched from 2000 to 2021 and two independent reviewers screened each record for inclusion. Inclusion criteria were that studies sampled medically qualified clinicians; reported empirical data; investigated effectiveness of an intervention in improving research engagement and addressed interventions implemented by an individual health service/hospital.

Of the 11,084 unique records, 257 studies were included. Most (78.2%) studies were conducted in the USA, and were targeted at residents (63.0%). Outcomes were measured in a variety of ways, most commonly publication-related outcomes (77.4%), though many studies used more than one outcome measure (70.4%). Pre-post (38.8%) and post-only (28.7%) study designs were the most common, while those using a contemporaneous control group were uncommon (11.5%). The most commonly reported interventions included Resident Research Programs (RRPs), protected time, mentorship and education programs. Many articles did not report key information needed for data extraction (e.g. sample size).

This scoping review demonstrated that, despite a large volume of research, issues like poor reporting, infrequent use of robust study designs and heterogeneous outcome measures limited application. The most compelling available evidence pointed to RRPs, protected time and mentorship as effective interventions. Further high-quality evidence is needed to guide healthcare organisations on increasing medical research engagement.

This paper aims to answer report how mentors who onboard newcomers to a high-stress social work organization can learn about their onboarding practice by treating onboarding as a wicked problem that escapes definitive formulation and final solutions.

The authors follow an action research approach with three iterations of learning about onboarding with mentors in a Danish social work organization struggling with an employee turnover exceeding 30%.

The authors unfold the authors’ emerging sensitivity to wickedity over the iterations of learning about onboarding with the mentors. As the authors foreground the wickedity of the authors onboarding in the last iteration, three lessons learned could be derived: it warrants the mentors’ continuous inquiry; opens inquiry into the ambivalence of mentoring; and convenes responsibility for inquiry to a community of mentors.

This study of problematic onboarding to high-stress social work shows the value of fore-grounding wickedity instead of hiding it with a positive framing. This wickedity rests on situated grounding and is only transferrable to other organizations with the utmost caution.

High-stress social work organizations without the capacity to systematically sustain best practices for onboarding may, instead, increase attention to the wickedity of onboarding as a motivation for continuous inquiry by a broader community of mentors.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to present an action research study of problem wickedity to motivate mentors’ inquiry into onboarding newcomers to high-stress social work.

Structural mentoring barriers are policies, practices and cultural norms that collectively disadvantage marginalized groups and perpetuate disparities in mentoring. This study aims to better understand structural mentoring barriers at the postdoctoral training stage, which has a direct impact on faculty diversity and national efforts to retain underrepresented groups in research careers.

A diverse sample of postdoctoral scholars (“postdocs”) from across the USA were asked to participate in focus groups to discuss their training experiences. The authors conducted five 90-min focus groups with 32 biomedical postdocs, including 20 (63%) women and 15 (47%) individuals from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups (URG).

A social-ecological framework was used to categorize both the upstream and downstream manifestations of structural mentoring barriers, as well as mentoring barriers, overall. Notable structural barriers included: academic politics and scientific hierarchy; inequalities resulting from mentor prestige; the (over) reliance on one mentor; the lack of formal training for academic and non-academic careers; and the lack of institutional diversity and institutional mentor training. To overcome these barriers, postdocs strongly encouraged developing a network or team of mentors and recommended institutional interventions that create more comprehensive professional development, mentorship and belonging.

For postdoctoral scientists, structural mentoring barriers can permeate down to institutional, interpersonal and individual levels, impeding a successful transition to an independent research career. This work provides strong evidence for promoting mentorship networks and cultivating a “mentoring milieu” that fosters a supportive community and a strong culture of mentorship at all levels.