Extending the research agenda on (ethical) coaching and mentoring in education: embracing mutuality and prioritising well-being

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a review of the evidence base on coaching and mentoring in education, to provide a commentary on literature published in the first 10 volumes of the International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education (IJMCE) in particular and to offer some directions for future research in the field.Design/methodology/approachThis review and position paper draws on the authors’ knowledge of the extant literature on coaching and mentoring in education, their own research in the field and their perspectives as editors of coaching and mentoring journals.FindingsAmong the outcomes of their review and commentary, the authors observe that coaching and mentoring research conducted to date largely occupies two separate fields, and studies published in one field frequently fail to draw on relevant literature from the other or recognise the overlap between them. The authors highlight a number of additional limitations of the evidence base on coaching and mentoring in education and offer some potential means of addressing these.Originality/valueThe paper offers an original reflection on current research into coaching and mentoring in education. It is intended that the paper will inform the design and publication of future studies in this area to strengthen the evidence base and, in turn, inform improvements to coaching and mentoring practice. In particular, the authors hope to encourage the ethical deployment of coaching and mentoring which enhances, rather than inhibits, the well-being of all participants, while realising other positive outcomes.

МЕНТОРСКИ РАД У СРБИЈИ – КОНТУРЕ ЈЕДНЕ ТИПОЛОГИЗАЦИЈЕ

As a highly complex relational phenomenon, mentoring and practice which are jointly carried out by an intern and a mentor, attracted the attention of researchers in different fields. With the aim to draw attention to this part of the educational practice in our environment, we carried out a research which focuses on issues of internship and mentoring in education. Although our attention was focused primarily on the issues related to understanding the concept of internships and mentoring and how the offered solutions would reflect in the practice of interns and mentors, research has unexpectedly resulted in some additional findings – the possible types of mentoring in our educational context.Shown results were achieved after analysis of the transcribed material collected in individual interviews, conducted by ten mentors. All the discovered and different approaches to mentoring work are based on an analysis of responses and interpretations that were given by the mentors themselves, and related to: understanding the functions of mentoring; expectations from the interns; understanding the role of interns and mentors; understanding the process of learning and the importance of planning the work with interns. Interpreting the way mentors understand aforesaid and describing specific relation with their interns, we have selected mentors who have demonstrated a consistent linguistic experiential patterns and positions, mutually so different, that they can make the contours of different types of mentoring. In the paper these specific types are identified as: adhoc, formal and development mentoring.

Mentoring for educators’ professional learning and development

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review and highlight key findings, themes and ideas from selected published academic papers on mentoring in education, with a specific focus on how mentoring can foster the professional learning and development of educators at all stages of their professional development. Design/methodology/approach The author conducted a literature review of all the papers published in the International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, from Volume 1, Issue 1 (2012) to Volume 4, Issue 4 (2015), that contained the word “mentoring” in either the title, abstract and/or keywords and with a discussion of mentoring in the main text. In total, 37 papers were analysed in order to create a meta-synthesis of the primary findings. Findings The findings present factors that foster mentoring success or failure. The purposes and components of mentoring programmes are diverse and contextually bound. Additionally, there is a tendency to view mentoring as a developmental relationship in which the mentor shares knowledge and expertise to support the mentee’s learning and professional development. Research limitations/implications As this meta-synthesis literature review is focussed on articles published in a single journal on mentoring, it has limited scope. However, the range of countries in which the authors of the reviewed empirical studies reside (13 countries), and the diversity of papers included in this review allowed the author to summarize and synthesize unique information for researchers and practitioners who are seeking to understand the process, outcomes and issues related to mentoring for the professional development of educators. Practical implications The review provides information for those seeking to study and implement mentoring programmes. It focusses on mentoring for professional development of educators, identifies primary concepts in the literature reviewed and highlights new research areas in mentoring in education. Originality/value This literature review discusses mentoring definitions from 37 different papers and contributes important knowledge to produce a picture of the intricacy of mentoring. Complex issues linked with mentoring are addressed, generating a critical systematization of mentoring research likely to have a lasting influence in the field.