How can we enable and encourage new teachers to realize their potential at the beginning of their professional careers?
This book examines teacher induction practices across Europe and offers a new perspective on how new teachers learn, grow, and develop into autonomous professionals. This book challenges the traditional models of mentoring viewing new teachers as passive recipients of support and instead emphasizes their potential as reflective practitioners. Based on current and timely research, the book introduces the concept of "ecologies of practice," which refers to emerging, interdependent and diverse education ecosystems in which practices are intertwined and therefore need to be developed as a dynamic whole. This book is essential reading for anyone committed to nurturing the potential of the next generation of teachers to their full potential.
Michelle Helms-Lorenz is currently an Adjunct Professor of Educational Sciences and a member of the management team of the Teacher Education department at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). Her research interests involve teaching skillfulness, the conceptualization of teaching quality, student perceptions of teaching quality, the motivation and wellbeing of beginning- and pre-service teachers and the effectiveness of interventions to promote professional development and retention.
Hannu L. T. Heikkinen is a professor at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research at the University of Jyväskylä. He has studied professional development among teachers, focusing particularly on research on teacher induction since the 1990s. He has been actively involved in various international networks, for example, serving as a long-term convenor of the EERA Network on Professional Learning and Development and as one of the founding members of the Ecologies of Teacher Induction and Mentoring in Europe (TIME) network.
Helle Plauborg works as an associate professor at the Danish School of Education at Aarhus University, Denmark. She is head of the research program “Teachers and Teaching: Teacher Education, Practice, Professional Development” and member of the research networks TEPE (Teacher Education Policy in Europe) and TIME (ecologies of Teacher Induction and Mentoring in Europe). She is currently leading a research project exploring why teachers stay in the profession.
Eva Bjerkholt, professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway, leader of the Norwegian network on Mentoring Newly Qualified Teachers and the Nordic cross-sectoral network, NTI: Nordic Teacher Induction. Research leader of STEP: Partnership for Sustainable Transition from Teacher Education to Profession. Becoming a professional teacher. Research field: Teacher education, induction, mentoring and mentoring training.
Preface
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
1 Ecologies of Teacher Induction and Mentoring in Europe: Understanding the Co-Existence of Diverse Practices
Hannu L. T. Heikkinen, Michelle Helms-Lorenz, Helle Plauborg and Eva Bjerkholt
2 European Studies on Teacher Induction and Mentoring: A Literature Review
Helle Plauborg, Maria Assunção Flores, Lisbeth Lunde Frederiksen and Vasileios Symeonidis
3 A Comparative Analysis of Teacher Induction: Purposes, Practices and Curriculum Ideologies
Michelle Attard Tonna, Eva Bjerkholt, Rachel Shanks and Marco Snoek
4 An Ecological Perspective on Mentoring: Austrian and Israeli Academic Depictions of Mentor-Teachers’ Work
Tal Carmi and Johannes Dammerer
5 Mentoring New Teachers in the Nordics
Sally Windsor, Eva Bjerkholt, Tonje Harbek Brokke, Åse Bonde, Per Båvner, Mattias Börjesson, Lisbeth Lunde Frederiksen, Elisabeth Halse, Jónina Hauksdóttir, Sissel Havre, Hannu L. T. Heikkinen, Päivi Lyhykäinen, Katrin Poom-Valickis and Birna Svanbjörnsdóttir
6 Towards Understanding Induction Policies and Practices in French-Speaking Belgium and the Netherlands
Michelle Helms-Lorenz and Thibault Coppe
7 Mentoring for Teacher Induction in Romania and the Republic of Moldova: Understanding the Complexities of Emerging Practices
Mihaela Mitescu-Manea, Valentina Bodrug-Lungu and Mariana Crașovan
8 Travelling Practices: Planting a Hybridised Induction Programme in the Gibraltarian Education Ecosystem
Elaine Lima and Hannu L. T. Heikkinen
9 Induction in the German Speaking Central Europe – Switzerland, Austria, and Germany: A Comparative Analysis
Manuela Keller-Schneider, Johannes Dammerer and Doris Wittek
10 Policy Analysis and Practices in Teacher Induction and Mentoring: Insights from Poland and Slovakia
Joanna MadaliÅ„ska-Michalak and Silvia DonÄevová
Index
This book is ideal for researchers, teacher educators, postgraduate students, tutors, supervisors, mentors, mentor trainers and education practitioners interested in teacher induction, professional development, mentoring, and educational policies across Europe.