The Scottish approach to mentoring in early phase teacher education: an overview and critique

This chapter explores the rationale for mentoring in Scotland, tracing its development in early phase teacher education (initial teacher education and the induction year). The chapter aims to show how these Scottish developments can be understood in relation to the wider discourse on 'learning to teach' both within and beyond Scotland. This is done through an analysis of the development of the world-renowned 'teacher induction scheme' (TIS) as well as through discussion of contemporary research findings on mentors' and new teachers' views of their mentoring experiences from the 'Measuring Quality in Initial Teacher Education' (MQuITE) project. The chapter concludes by raising a number of challenges, and making some suggestions about how Scotland might move to the next stage of its development regarding early phase mentoring. It is hoped that this chapter will help all of those involved in mentoring processes in Scotland to better understand why things are the way they are, and to be able to take a proactively critical stance on their future engagement in mentoring and towards their contribution to wider mentoring policy going forward.