Judgementoring and other threats to realizing the potential of school‐based mentoring in teacher education

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to identify and examine root causes of the failure of school-based mentoring to realize its full potential. Design/methodology/approach – The article draws on the re-analysis of data from two major mixed-method empirical studies carried out in England. It focuses on data generated from interviews with beginner teachers and mentors in both primary and secondary schools. Findings – The findings point to a failure to create appropriate conditions for effective mentoring in England at the level of the mentoring relationship, the school, and the national policy context. Implications – Implications of the findings include the need to achieve a greater degree of informed consensus on the meaning and purposes of mentoring in teacher education, and to ensure that mentors of beginner teachers are appropriately trained for the role. Originality/value – The article identifies the practice of judgemental mentoring or ‘judgementoring’ as an obstacle to school-based mentoring realizing its potential and an impediment to the professional learning and wellbeing of beginner teachers. It also points to worrying indications that judgementoring may be becoming, through accrued experiences, the default understanding of mentoring in England.