The purpose of this study is to investigate the knowledge, processes and conditions involved in mentorship practices that lead to professional growth1for mentor teachers. The supervision and guidance that student and beginning teachers receive from mentor teachers2is a critical aspect of starting in the profession which, when done well, has been shown to lower teacher attrition rates (Geiger & Pivovarova, 2018), and impact teacher retention (Cobia, Stephens,& Shearer, 2015). But how does taking on the role of mentor benefit mentors themselves in a professional capacity? There is mentoring literature that focuses on the commitment of mentors, which it is assumed, provides motivation for mentors. Mentors have been shown to have “a commitment to pupils...a commitment to the profession...and, a commitment to self” (Clarke & Mena, 2020, p.2, italics in the original). However, as Clarke and Mena (2020) show in their comparative study of mentoring motivations mentors find the prospect of “improving their own teaching practice...compelling but not excessively so” (p.12). Other research has shown that certain mentoring processes promote professional growth not only for mentees but also for mentor teachers (Trevethan & Sandretto, 2017; Windsor et al., 2020). Our ongoing research has shown that some mentoring processes, such as conducting descriptive observation conversations (Kriewaldt et al., 2018; Windsor et al., 2020), while designed to enhance student teacher learning in situ, were beneficial for mentor teachers’ practice. In Sweden, as with other parts of the world, the university practicum courses are often where teachers get the first opportunity to act as mentors. Although anecdotally school principals and teachers recognise this as an important role, that is valuable for student and beginning teachers alike, it is often considered a burden to practicing teachers. In much of the discussion about mentoring school leaders have asked “What is in it for us? How can we justify spending large parts of our budget and time educating for mentoring?” In response to this line of questioning, we are interested in identifying and analysing the professional development benefits to schools and mentor teachers that the act of mentoring can provide.

Clarke, A., & Mena, J. (2020). An international comparative study of practicum mentors: Learning about ourselves by learning about others. Teaching and Teacher Education, 90, 103026. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103026 Cobia, D., Stephens, C., & Sherer, G. (2015). FOCUS: A state-wide initiative to select and retain transition teachers. Journal of the National Association for Alternative Certification, 10(2), 17-31. Geiger, T., & Pivovarova, M. (2018). The effects of working conditions on teacher retention. Teachers and Teaching, 24(6), 604-625. doi:10.1080/13540602.2018.1457524 Kriewaldt, J., Nash, M., Windsor, S., Thornton, J., & Reid, C. (2018). Fostering professional learning through evidence-informed mentoring dialogues in school settings. In J. Kriewaldt, A. Ambrosetti, D. Rorrison, & R. Capeness (Eds.), Educating future teachers: Innovative perspectives in professional experience. Singapore: Springer. Trevethan, H. & Sandretto, S. (2017). Repositioning mentoring as educative: Examining missed opportunities for professional learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 68, 127-133. Windsor, S., Kriewaldt, J., Nash, M., Lilja, A., & Thornton, J. (2020). Developing teachers: adopting observation tools that suspend judgement to stimulate evidence-informed dialogue during the teaching practicum to enrich teacher professional development. Professional Development in Education, 1-15. doi:10.1080/19415257.2020.1712452