This symposium is the first part of a double symposium, entitled ´”Practices of teacher induction”. In part 1, chaired by Hannu Heikkinen, we will study practices of mentoring. In part 2, chaired by Kari Smith, we will focus on mentor education.

The need to support the professional development of new teachers is a challenge in many countries. This topic is often studied under the concept of ‘mentoring’. However, mentoring has sometimes been described as ‘a practice which is ill-defined, poorly conceptualized and weakly theorized’ (Colley, 2003). In the first part of the symposium, we will introduce some theoretical views on mentoring from a practice based view. We postulate that mentoring, as well as education of mentors, are ontologically social practices: they are ‘[…] coherent and compex form[s] of socially established co-operative human activities’ (MacIntyre 1981, p. 187.) These practices are constituted ‘[…]in historical and social context that gives structure and meaning to what people do’ (Wenger 1998, p. 47.) Thus, research on teacher induction is essentially research on practice. This is why practice theories are a natural choice for those doing research on mentoring. We want to emphasize that we use the term ‘practice theories’ in a plural form.  We could also talk about ‘practice-based view’, ‘practice based approach’, ‘practice standpoint’, or ‘practice idiom’. This means that there are a number of practice based approaches which do not necessarily stem from a single unified theory of practice but emerge from several scholarly traditions (Nicolini 2013, p. 9). Thus, we are not necessarily aiming at a grand synthesis of these ontologically different views but want to give space for fundamentally different approaches.

After an overview on practice based approach, we will introduce empirical projects which develop, disseminate and evaluate collaborative practices of teacher induction. In Finland, a national program for teacher induction was launched in 2010. This program exploits and further develops the peer-group mentoring model (PGM) which was developed in 2006-2010 in collaboration with teachers, schools, municipalities, teacher educators and researchers of the Finnish Institute for Educational Research. In this model, new teachers meet regularly in peer groups which are facilitated by an experienced mentor who has accomplished a mentor education course, organized by the regional teacher education institutions. A rather similar practice has lately been introduced by a European Paedeia network, funded by the Life Long Learning Programme of the European Commission. This initiative is has been launched under the title of ‘Paedeia Café’. An unique feature of this variant of peer-group mentoring is that not only new teachers participate in the groups, but also teacher students. The second presentation of the symposium is based on the empirical data about the implementation of the peer-group mentoring model in Finland. The third presentation will introduce the work of Paedeia network, including the Paedeia Café model, and the fourth paper will introduce results of the project evaluation.

LITERATURE:

Geeraerts, K., Tynjälä, P., Markkanen, I., Pennanen, P. , Heikkinen, H. & Gijbels, D. 2014. Peer-Group Mentoring as a Tool for Teacher Development. (Submitted manuscript.)

Kemmis, S. & Heikkinen, H. 2012. Future perspectives: Peer-Group Mentoring and international practices for teacher development. In: H. Heikkinen, H. Jokinen & P. Tynjälä (Eds.) Peer-Group Mentoring for Teacher Development. Milton Park: Routledge, 144-170.

Kemmis, S., Heikkinen, H., Aspfors, J., Fransson, G. & Edwards-Groves, C. 2014. Mentoring as Contested Practice: Support, Supervision and  Collaborative Self-development. (Submitted manuscript.)

Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P. & Bristol, L. 2014. Changing Practices, Changing Education. Singapore: Springer.

Tynjälä, P. & Heikkinen, H. 2011. Beginning teachers’ transition from pre-service education to working life. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft: 14, (1), 11-34.