As a young teacher and a graduate of Kazakh National Women's Teacher Training University, I have returned to pursue further studies as a PhD student. My personal journey has sparked my interest in mentoring, particularly in the context of formal and informal mentoring programmes. Mentoring is a crucial aspect of professional development, particularly for novice teachers who require support and guidance as they show the complexities of the classroom. 

Mentoring is a process that defines the relationship between mentor and mentee. Mentoring can take many forms, ranging from formal programmes to informal relationships that develop spontaneously between colleagues. The literature on mentoring is vast and varied, with empirical studies exploring the benefits and challenges of different mentoring approaches. As a young teacher, I have experienced the benefits of mentoring first-hand. I have been fortunate to have mentors who have provided me with guidance and support as I face classroom challenges. However, I have also encountered the limitations of mentoring, particularly regarding access to resources and the challenges of mentoring programmes. 

Formal mentoring requires a short-term (one-year) formal programme (Inzer & Crawford, 2005). The mentors are usually assigned and protégés (mentees) are strongly encouraged to participate in this programme (Cotton, Ragins, & Miller, 2000).  An informal programme, on the other hand, is defined as a natural process where the mentor and mentee are in a good relationship that contains personal and professional respect. The relationship is usually long-term. 

However, in comparing formal and informal mentoring, Boyle and Boice (1998) found that participants of the formal mentoring programme reported high levels of satisfaction, considering better planning, organisation, systematic feedback, and the huge involvement of mentees in school activities. As discussed by the other researcher, Mathias (2005), teachers who just started their career, have a greater appreciation for the formal mentorship component. Furthermore, he follows that formal mentorship provided them with more in-depth support for professional growth, with the help of outside experts, invited to support the unique requirements of each department.   

On the other hand, according to the study of Inzer and Crawford (2005), informal organisational mentoring is more advantageous than formal mentoring.  They argue that more career development activities, such as coaching, giving difficult jobs, or raising mentees’ experience and reflectiveness, were performed by informal mentors. Positive psychosocial behaviours like counselling, social interaction assistance, role modelling, and friendship-granting were more frequently performed by informal mentors. Due to the ease of relating to one another, informal mentoring ties grow. As the mentee may seek to imitate the mentor's traits, and the mentor may recognise themselves in the mentee.    

Consequently, informal mentoring is considered one of the most effective and useful strategies for mentees’ development, as it lasts longer and is based on both mentor and mentee satisfaction. It takes place in a relationship that both teachers voluntarily form, where friendship comes first, followed by education and career.   

Although informal mentors excel in career development, they fail to acknowledge the structured programmes that formal mentoring might provide for skill enhancement. Moreover, emphasising how simple it is to establish ties in informal mentoring may have the possibility of prejudice or the absence of systematic supervision in these kinds of relationships, resulting in the mentor and mentee choice being based more on personal preferences than on objective standards of professional growth.   

Therefore, the paper aims to provide a further review of the literature by comparing formal and informal mentoring programmes by highlighting the benefits and critiques that each type of programme faces.    

The review addresses the following research questions:

1. What are the benefits and challenges of formal and informal mentoring?

The methodology employed in this review reflects my personal experiences and challenges encountered during the research process. In order to perform this literature evaluation on the topic of formal and informal mentoring, a thorough and systematic strategy was chosen. Using Boolean operators for refinement, the search method used keywords like "formal mentoring," "informal mentoring," "mentorship," "mentoring programmes," and "mentoring relationships" to look for electronic databases like SCOPUS, ERIC, Google Scholar and the university library. While access to certain scholarly articles was limited due to subscription constraints, as my university could not provide me with a SCOPUS subscription, I managed these challenges by utilizing open-access resources, such as Sci-hub. This approach allowed me to engage with a wide range of literature while acknowledging and working within the limitations posed by subscription barriers. Peer-reviewed articles and scholarly publications published in English, Russian and Kazakh between 1990 and 2023 were included in the inclusion criteria. The choice of this time frame is notable since it coincides with Kazakhstan's independence, marking a period of substantial change in the nation's educational system. Furthermore, the review includes international sources that provide thorough analyses of mentorship systems that extend beyond Kazakhstan. After a first screening of the titles and abstracts, a full-text review was conducted, and 30 papers out of initial number of 70 were ultimately chosen, with an emphasis on reviews, meta-analyses, and empirical research. Information about the author(s), publication year, research design, methodology, important findings, and implications were all retrieved as part of the data extraction process. The nature of mentoring relationships as formal and informal, the comparison of both formal and informal mentoring, the benefits and critiques of formal and informal mentoring, and the contextual elements affecting mentoring practices were chosen as the basis for thematic categorisation of the articles. Systematic quality evaluation ensured the reliability and validity of the selected literature. While acknowledging certain limitation as the period of time selected, the technique used offers a strong basis for the analysis of the literature provided in this paper.

In conclusion, this literature review has been a valuable learning experience for me as an emerging researcher. It has provided insights into the complexities of mentoring and the challenges faced in accessing scholarly resources. Through this process, I have gained a deeper understanding of the methodologies and a broader understanding of mentoring, which has significantly contributed to my professional development as a Ph.D. student. The review has also shed light on the challenges inherent in accessing scholarly literature, prompting a reflection on the limitations and opportunities presented by the current academic environment. Overall, the literature review provides a comprehensive overview of the types of mentoring, highlighting the benefits and challenges of different approaches and offering insights into the ways in which mentoring can support teacher retention and professional development.

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