Over the last two decades most OECD countries have developed different programmes to support new teachers, followed by growing research evaluating the impact and effectiveness of these initiatives (European Commission, 2010; Maxwell et al., 2024).

However, existing literature still refers to the impact of these initiatives as ‘potential’ (Kraft, Blazar and Hogan, 2018; Schuck et al., 2018). Other challenges include the way most induction programmes do not require new teachers to act as critically reflexive inquirers with specialised knowledge and many programmes tend to focus on performance outcomes, where those teachers are positioned within instrumental and managerial lenses (Simmie et al., 2020). Of particular interest here is that although much emphasis is placed on how mentoring programmes are designed with reference to the school context, most evaluations place little or no reference of the school context and instead focus on describing the way in which such policies are meant to work (Zuljan and Pozarnik, 2014).

Persistent questions relating to induction programmes remain to be solved. Is it more important to evaluate new teachers or to promote their professional development? Should induction programmes provide new teachers with safety nets, or challenge their teaching skills? Should they use a humanistic-based approach to be proactive and supportive or should they be critical, constructivist and encourage new teachers to question and challenge existing teaching practice? (Paniagua and Sanchez-Martí, 2018)

Critical literature has sought to illuminate the dark side of induction and has alerted that despite the best of intentions, induction might not be understood by all as the same thing and may even have the potential to do harm (Long 1994). These harms may include: the pressure for reproducing the mentor’s work style, a.k.a contrived collegiality, the creation of over dependence dynamics, and gender concerns.

This analysis provides with a critical insight in the way initial teacher education, induction programmes and continuous professional development have been organised and conceptualised independently. To that extent, it follows existing research that calls to work for a ‘comprehensive induction scheme’ that connects induction with the early professional development of teachers (Spooner-Lane, 2017; Aspfors and Fransson, 2015; Simmie et al., 2020). Further, it aims at adding more insights from promising developments that go in the direction of including novice teachers into dynamic inquiry groups functioning as learning communities at schools (Zuljan and Požarnik, 2014) or engaging pre-service teachers into ‘research-informed clinical practice’ (Burn and Mutton, 2015).

The present analysis reflects on the characteristics of induction programmes and mentoring initiatives to ask:

To what extent is it plausible to expect that novice teachers entering the profession can benefit from induction and mentoring programmes and develop into both competent professionals and innovative educators?

This overarching research question can be subdivided into the following more specific research questions:

1.  How experienced teachers can become professional models in a profession that still struggles with validating innovative pedagogical knowledge?

2.  What are the current trends of induction initiatives and how these relate to both initial teacher training and continuous professional development?

3. How should we evaluate the impact of induction initiatives?

4. How can policymakers design initiatives to better fit the needs of new teachers and school cultures?

This analysis is based on three research projects the author has been involved during the last years. All projects included an extensive review of literature about induction and mentoring programs. The first project worked with a network of schools that were advancing innovative forms of organising teaching and learning. The fieldwork included the identification and analysis of 27 international and national networks of schools from OECD countries and one of the main research questions was to discuss the mechanisms these schools implement to prepare new teachers in their schools (Paniagua and Istance, 2018). For this communication the author focuses on the challenges associated with the different training experiences and expectations of new teachers and the particular demands of these innovative pedagogies being implemented, which in some cases included innovative forms of support. The second project revolved around the evaluation of the initial teacher preparation systems in 7 OECD countries: Norway, Korea, The United States, Japan, Australia and Wales (UK). The research design aimed at includes both initial teacher education, the transition into the teaching and profession and an analysis of existing mechanisms to support new teachers during the first years (OECD, 2019). In this analysis, the author uses different promising cases of induction initiatives to address the potentials and ongoing challenges of induction and mentoring programmes, also in light of alternative, more innovative ways of supporting new teachers. Finally, in the third project, that finished in 2024, the author participated in a research project that involved the analysis of induction initiatives in 7 European countries and regions: Portugal, Greece, Slovenia, Germany, Catalonia (Spain) and Italy. A fundamental part of the project included the design of new mentoring programs in collaboration with national agencies and MoEs (https://empowering-teachers.eu/). Primarily, the author’s insights are based on the national reports drafted for each country and the lessons learned when designing and implementing the pilot mentoring scheme in the particular context of Catalonia. The final step will include an evaluation of the first year of a mentoring programme the Catalan government implemented in 2023-24, partially based on their participation in the above-mentioned European project.

Without further supporting mechanisms in schools, new teachers are likely to rely on the ongoing unquestioned truths about the nature of teaching. Therefore, policymakers need to move beyond the idea that reforms of initial teacher education programmes alone can address the ominous challenge of preparing future teachers for their profession. This is illustrated by these new teachers that generally state that they feel prepared, but acknowledge that the limits of their initial training, while emphasizing the many difficulties they face. This analysis identifies four models of induction schemes: the first characterized by the inexistence of formal, structured induction actions – the “laissez-faire” model – in which early career years are not acknowledged as a different formative phase; a second model – probationary stage – where new teachers are not considered full teachers for an established period and might benefit from scattered forms of support; a third one in which induction is inscribed in culture of the school as a learning organization – the residency model; and finally the proper induction model in which mentoring plays a vital role whereby new teachers that should learn from experienced colleagues. Building on promising induction and mentoring practices presented here, this analysis concludes that policymakers should focus on the residency model to guarantee a ‘learning contract’ in ‘sheltered’ environments. This would ultimately allow for the enthusiasm, idealism and recent training of new teachers to innovate existing school practices. Of vital importance is that this “residency model” involves a critical degree of expertise, positive relationships among staff members, culture change, shared vision, co-operation, and change agents. That is, a focus on creating learning communities that share a professional culture of constant reflection and innovation.

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