“Navigating Uncharted Waters”: New Teacher Mentoring and Induction

Abstract

Teacher attrition, a startling problem worldwide, can be counteracted with comprehensive mentoring and induction. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe a division-wide, job-embedded mentoring/induction program in three US elementary schools that determined key features/components influencing experience during a crisis. Research questions were: (1) How are school-based induction/mentoring programs explained in the literature relative to key features/components? (2) How do elementary practitioners involved in formal mentoring describe it? (3) What was the perceived effect of COVID-19 on this program? Based on the literature reviewed, support, accessibility, and collaboration (SAC) are important components of formal mentoring/induction. In 2021, mentor teachers, principals, and new teachers in Virginia completed a demographic survey and interviews. Per their self-reports, while the onsite program was operating during the pandemic, it did not uniformly demonstrate consistency and fidelity. Because the quality of mentoring was variable, the need for equitable support was recognized. Equity-embedded SAC was theorized as support, accessibility, collaboration, and equity (SACE) by the authors. It is time for equity to be widely recognized as a crucial feature of formal mentoring/induction. This is a direction for future research and program improvement.