Whole-school approach anti-bullying interventions have become a prominent strategy for addressing bullying and improving students’ well-being, inclusion, and learning environments (Gaffney et al., 2021; UNESCO, 2024). These programs typically rely on sustained professional learning among teachers and school leaders and are often implemented with the support of external facilitators. While evaluative research shows that many such programs are effective in reducing bullying (Gaffney et al., 2019; Gaffney et al., 2021), comparatively little attention has been paid to how professional learning is supported during implementation, and in particular to the role of external mentors in shaping teachers’ and leaders’ learning practices.

Across national contexts, these external facilitators are described using a wide range of terms, including mentor, consultant, advisor, or trainer. Despite their centrality, their work is often treated as a technical or logistical support function rather than as professional learning. Moreover, the concept of mentoring itself remains loosely defined in this context (Aspfors & Fransson, 2015). Building on research that conceptualises mentoring as a socially situated professional learning practice—where knowledge, norms, and judgments are negotiated in and for practice (Goldshaft & Sjølie, 2024; Kemmis et al., 2017; Langelotz, 2017; Orland-Barak, 2016) —this paper foregrounds mentoring as more than delivery support. We also recognise that mentoring practices vary along a directive–dialogic continuum (Aspfors & Fransson, 2015) and can be contested in their purposes and power dynamics (Kemmis, Heikkinen, et al., 2014).

This paper presents a planned qualitative, comparative study that examines mentoring practices as forms of professional learning embedded in the implementation of whole-school anti-bullying interventions. The study draws on five research-based interventions: Free from Mobbing (Fri for Mobberi [Denmark]); KnowBullying (Slovenia/Croatia); KiVa (Finland); the Learning Environment Project (Læringsmiljøprosjektet [Norway]); and the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (worldwide). These cases offer a unique opportunity to examine how mentoring supports professional learning across different institutional arrangements, policy contexts, and traditions of teacher professionalism.

The study is theoretically anchored in the Theory of Practice Architectures (TPA) (Kemmis, Wilkinson, et al., 2014), which conceptualises professional learning as occurring in and for practice (Salo et al., 2024) rather than as the transmission of knowledge. From this perspective, mentoring is understood as a practice composed of sayings (professional language and discourses), doings (activities, routines, and tools), and relatings (social relationships, power, and trust), all of which are shaped by broader organisational factors: cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements (Kemmis, Heikkinen, et al., 2014). This framework allows for a close examination of how mentoring mediates professional learning and of how school personnel (including teachers, leaders, and non-pedagogical staff) engage with new knowledge during implementation.

The study addresses the following research questions:

1. How are mentoring practices operationalised in the different interventions?
2. In what ways might practice architectures enable or constrain mentoring as a form of professional learning?
3. How do mentoring-based professional learning practices vary across intervention programs and national contexts?

Although data collection is ongoing, the study is expected to show that mentoring practices range from directive, program-driven approaches to more dialogic and inquiry-oriented forms of professional learning that can expand professional agency (Edwards & Protheroe, 2004). The paper contributes to the Professional Learning Network by offering a practice-theoretical analysis of mentoring as situated professional learning in large-scale school reform.

The study adopts a qualitative, multiple-case study design (Stake, 2013) to explore mentoring practices as professional learning within five whole-school approach anti-bullying interventions. Each program constitutes a case situated within its specific national and institutional context. The study is grounded in an interpretive research tradition that prioritises participants’ meanings, experiences, and situated learning practices (Crotty, 1998). Data will be generated through four main sources. First, document analysis will examine how professional learning and mentoring are framed in peer-reviewed research literature, program materials, policy texts and evaluative reports. Second, observations of mentoring interactions—such as training sessions, implementation meetings, and reflective dialogues—will capture professional learning as it unfolds in practice. Third, semi-structured interviews with mentors, teachers, and school leaders will explore mentoring experiences, learning expectations, and perceived professional growth. Fourth, the researcher's reflective notes will be included, particularly when the researcher holds dual roles as a program-implementation mentor (PIM). Recognising mentoring as relational professional learning, the study intentionally combines insider and outsider perspectives. Reflexivity is treated as a methodological resource rather than a limitation (Alvesson & Sköldberg, 2018). Ethical approval will be sought through national research ethics bodies, and all participants will provide informed consent in line with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Data analysis will draw explicitly on the Theory of Practice Architectures. Professional learning practices will be analysed by examining what is said, done, and related in mentoring interactions, and by identifying the cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political arrangements that shape (but do not define) these practices. Within-case analyses will be followed by a comparative cross-case analysis, enabling exploration of how mentoring mediates professional learning across different reform environments (Kemmis, 2022).

This paper reports on an ongoing comparative study investigating mentoring as professional learning within the implementation of whole-school anti-bullying interventions. As the project is in progress, the conclusions below outline emergent analytical directions and anticipated contributions rather than definitive findings. Early analysis suggests that implementation mentoring constitutes a significant—yet often implicit—form of professional learning for teachers and school leaders. Rather than operating solely as technical support, mentoring appears to be a key site where professional knowledge, norms, and judgments are negotiated in and for practice. Across cases, mentoring practices range from directive, program-driven guidance to dialogic and inquiry-oriented approaches that enable reflection, contextual adaptation, and professional agency. The study examines how these variations are shaped by practice architectures—cultural-discursive (e.g., program language, evidence narratives), material-economic (e.g., time, tools, resourcing), and social-political arrangements (e.g., accountability, leadership, trust). Particular attention is being paid to tensions between program fidelity and contextual responsiveness, as well as to how power relations are enacted in mentor–mentee interactions. Analysing sayings, doings, and relatings across these arrangements is helping us specify the conditions under which mentoring supports—or constrains—meaningful professional learning during complex reform. As a research-in-progress contribution, the paper aims to advance Professional Learning Network debates by positioning mentoring as situated, collective, and practice-based learning rather than as an add-on to implementation. We anticipate producing: (a) clearer conceptualisations of mentoring as a professional learning practice in large-scale interventions; (b) design principles for mentoring structures (including mentor preparation and role clarity) that strengthen teacher and leader learning; and (c) methodological insights for analysing professional learning through a practice theoretical lens. Ultimately, the study seeks to inform researchers, program designers, and policymakers about how mentoring can be configured to balance fidelity with contextualisation, and how institutional arrangements can be aligned to sustain teacher and leader learning in whole-school anti-bullying work.

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