In Iceland, there is no formal guidance for new teachers, and no laws or regulations about how to support newly qualified teachers (NQTs). Thus the practices of professional guidance or systematic integration of new teachers are underdeveloped. However, the need for support for newly qualified teachers has been acknowledged, and in some schools practices have been developed to support newcomers. Still, the actual induction procedures are dependent on the headmasters and the financial situation of the school. The NQTs’ need for guidance was very little discussed until around the turn of the century with the publication of the first Icelandic research (Steingrímsdóttir, 2007). It became clear that some new teachers were given guidance but it was not systematic or formal. This guidance focused mostly on practical aspects of the schoolwork. This hindered any possibilities of ecological resilience. Further research (Ingvarsdóttir, 2009; Jónsdóttir, 2013; Steingrímsdóttir, 2007 and 2010; Steingrímsdóttir, & Engilbertsson, 2018) highlighted the urgent need for support and guidance of new teachers. The last few years teachers’ unions and universities providing teacher education in Iceland have been energetic advocates for support of new teachers and their objective is to develop mentoring as a permanent part of schoolwork and thus becoming an ecological niche. The last few years, mentoring has been a bit more prominent in the debate as one of the factors that prevent beginning teachers from failing and help them keeping up with more experienced teachers. An important milestone in Iceland was when the universities started to offer a 30 ECTS mentor education module in 2013. The aim of the module is to strengthen mentoring as a niche within the school culture so that is becomes an ecological entity. Currently, the challenge is that the government is considering proposals for formal systems that include formal guidance for new teachers and emphasize mentoring education for experienced teachers to support and mentor student teachers and NQT. In spring 2018, the Minister of Education appointed a group of experts to increase the recruitment of teachers and counteract the drop in teacher education. The group proposed new strategies two of which provide mentoring for new teachers. The former offers reeducation for experienced, teachers subsidized by the government. The latter ensure that induction programs are activated within every school to support NQT and preservice teachers.

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