Abstract:
Out of the various forms of school support for beginning teachers (BTs), mentoring seems to be a primary one. However, school support that BTs need goes beyond mentoring. In addition, studies on mentoring largely based on the accounts of mentors and/or mentees. Very few studies have juxtaposed the views of school leaders (SLs), middle managers (MMs) and BTs on school support and mentoring for BTs. This study seeks to address the gap and paint a more complete picture of effective school support and mentoring for BTs. Data include semi-structured individual interviews with SLs, MMs and BTs from 16 Singapore primary and secondary schools. We examined how the three groups of participants perceived school support and mentoring for BTs and drew some implications on how to achieve effective BT support. Our analysis revealed three distinctive points of departure regarding school support and mentoring for BTs. SLs focused more on the forms of support available for BTs while MMs detailed more the actual enactment of various forms of support. This reflects their respective roles - SLs see themselves as guiding the directions for staff professional learning while MMs are those who implement the policies by providing support and mentoring for BTs. However, BTs talked more about supportive school culture and friendly colleagues, and specific support received from mentors, buddies and other colleagues. In other words, it is the day-to-day experiences that make a real difference to BTs. This also mirrors the importance of a collegial staff culture in addressing BTs’ psychological and teaching-related needs. While the accounts of SLs and MMs showed that in most schools support was available for BTs’ short-term needs and long-term professional learning, some BTs seemed to overly concern immediate problems rather than long-term growth. In addition, a few BTs felt that support was available but not helpful. Therefore, there seems to be a mismatch between support provided by schools and BTs’ immediate needs in some schools. These findings suggest that what matters most to BTs is the lived experiences of being supported and mentored, despite the availability of various forms of support and even a well-structured support and mentoring system. This paper argues that more effective school support for BTs would be one that is based on demand-side analysis of BT’s immediate and long-term needs. In addition, the establishment of a supportive school culture would require a whole-school approach that goes beyond BT induction.