Mentoring – en suksessfaktor for nyutdannet lærer i ungdomsskolen?

Summary The purpose of this study has been to clarify whether mentoring is a substantial element of support for protégés the first year of teaching through the thesis question: Mentoring – a success factor for newly educated secondary school teachers? The study addresses the value of mentoring for the protégés in the transition from studying to working, what follow-up they have received at each work place, how they have experienced this follow-up and who has been appointed the mentoring position. The study is also addressing how each of the research schools in Bergen and Bærum municipality has organized the mentoring. The study is based on a qualitative research of 19 semistructured interviews, reports and governmental reports (to the Storting). The interviews have been conducted at the respective schools and at the school administration representative’s office. Mentoring for newly educated teachers has been discussed for more than 30 years within the governmental body. In 1982 Professor Jordell was one of the contributors in making the need for mentoring for newly educated teachers visible after delivering the results of a survey among newly educated teachers to the Norwegian Ministry of Education, Research and Church Affairs. The results that Professor Jordell presented are just as relevant today as 33 years ago; the results showed that the transition between studying and working as a teacher should be thoroughly addressed as part of the education, that the school administration specifically had a responsibility to organize best possible working conditions for newly educated, and that different guidance models should be tried and formalized. Since 1982 there have been multiple attempts to give newly educated teachers an organized start on their career, and today 79% of all school administrations are implementing some sort of mentoring. Is it working? Is the mentoring making a difference? I have used a theoretical framework which clarifies what functions the mentor and protégé have and what challenges each of them run into during a school year. An analysis has been conducted by using systematic text condensation and a discussion of the findings in the data related to four research questions regarding how the mentoring is organized, the experience of the transition, how the function of the mentoring role is practiced and what benefits the protégés are left with. The protégés have identified the mentor as an important factor in the process of becoming a confident teacher through the support received in the work of assessment and documentation. Through their mentor they have received an insight into the school culture. The role as a homeroom teacher is considered demanding and the time deficiency is protruding in almost all of the interviews. The mentor – protégé relationship is described through trust, equality and recognition. The newly educated teachers remarked that it is convenient that the mentoring is voluntary leaving them with the choice whether to attend the meetings or not. The joint mentoring meetings, where all the mentors and the newly educated teachers at the school, have given the teachers profound energy and they point out that the reflections on their own teaching or other’s challenges have been useful. One of the contributors have used the words “Out of the meeting as a person that has just received salvation” in which reflects the experience mentoring can give a protégé