Over the years the NTI-network has existed, there have been several different perspectives on understanding newly qualified teachers, induction and mentoring in the Nordic and Baltic region. In the current project period (2023-25), the NTI-network has focused on Promoting Professional Development. The aim has been to share research, policy and experiential knowledge to facilitate beginning teachers’ possibility to be a part of sustainable, comprehensive induction and mentoring systems for professional development and benefit from it. The project Promoting Professional Development has had ecologies of practice and practice architectures (Kemmis et al., 2014) as its theoretical foundation. In different ways, the project has investigated how the practices of teacher induction and mentoring of new teachers are prefigured (enabled/constrained) in the Nordic countries and Estonia as a part of continuous professional development. Since much of the research on induction and mentoring is dominated by the US, it is especially important to bring forward Nordic/Baltic perspectives, which are more aligned with the educational ethos of this region (Olsen et al., 2020). The investigation of practices in the project has been divided into two main topics. The first main topic was quality mentor education in the Nordic region, and the investigation has concentrated on the current state of mentor education programs offered in the region, how they are linked to professional development of mentors and mentees, and finally, how they are supported by policy. The second topic dives into exploring policy on mentoring and induction programs in the Nordic countries and Estonia, mapping an overview of the current state and comparing policy and legislation with the aim to identify and discuss what is unique and significantly different in the countries (Windsor et al., n.d.). The work in the NTI-network and the project Promoting Professional Development aims to contribute to both the research and policy work on induction and mentoring in the Nordic countries and Estonia. In this paper, we explore the following questions: What are the main findings from the two main topics in the project Promoting Professional Development? How can we understand the findings on mentoring in policy and mentor education in the light of ecologies of practices and the theory of practice architectures? What are important findings that can contribute to the way forward for new research or new policy development on mentor education and mentoring in policy?

Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P., & Bristol, L. (2014). Changing Practices, Changing Education. Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4560-47-4 Olsen, K.-R., Bjerkholt, E. M., & Heikkinen, H. L. T. (Eds.). (2020). New teachers in nordic countries - ecologies of mentoring and induction. Cappelen Damm Akademisk. Windsor, S., Bjerkholt, E. M., Brokke, T. H., Bonde, Å., Båvner, P., Börjesson, M., Frederiksen, L. L., Halse, E., Hauksdottir, J., Havre, S. H., Heikkinen, H. L. T., Lyhykäinen, P., Poom-Vlickis, K., & Svanbjörnsdottir, B. (2025). Mentoring new teachers in the Nordics. In M. Helms-Lorenz, H. L. T. Heikkinen, H. Plauborg, & E. Bjerkholt (Eds.) Making Sense of European Teacher Induction and Mentoring Practices. Brill.