In the last three decades many theories about mentoring student teachers and newly qualified teachers have emerged involving new perspectives on the goals of professional mentoring. The traditional role of mentor teachers has been to instruct, give advice and support student teachers in the classroom. But since the eighties, the role of mentors has come to include support for student teachers’ professional and personal development, and the focus has moved from adaptation to the job to the student teacher’s learning, through reflections about own actions, knowledge and values (Zeichner, 1983; Handal & Lauvås, 1983). In the new millennium the learning objectives of mentoring have been discussed and reviewed, without rejecting the ideas about reflection (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2000; Tait, 2008). The methods and goals of “reflection theories” are criticized for being too cognitive and individualistic; more emphasis should be put on personal, social and cultural aspects of teacher learning and mentoring. Many scholars are inspired by situated learning theories and argue that knowledge is always tied to the social and cultural context in which it is learned (Borko, 2004). According to that perspective, teacher learning means moving towards a new understanding and changed participation in social activities (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Definitions of mentoring have been reconsidered, terms such as co-mentoring, collaborative mentoring and peer-mentoring reflect these changes (Hargraves & Fullan, 2000; Le Cornu & Ewing, 2008). Partnership between teacher universities and schools has become a key term in teacher education. In most partnership programs, student teachers are expected to learn through active participation in the whole school community - not only from practice teaching in “the classroom”. Mentoring is considered to be the most crucial tool and all the involved partners in the mentoring process, and the school as an organization, should learn and develop.

The practicum program at the University of Iceland has been restructured, based on ideas about partnership, as in many other European countries. This calls for reconsideration of mentoring as a pedagogical tool. The aim of my study is to shed light on different perspectives on the goals of mentoring, the main conflicts between these perspectives, and possibilities for complementary goals. Many groups will be involved in the mentoring process at the University of Iceland; preservice teachers, professionals and institutions. The main questions in this paper are: How are the most important learning objectives of mentoring defined by involved groups and institutions? What are the main differences and conflicts between the perspectives of the involved parties?

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