This research explored the long-term impact of a mentor training program for teachers. The program was developed as a systemic response to national and state government reviews of teacher education in Australia. Over six years, 4000 teachers participated in the two-day face-to-face program. On completion, teachers were expected to lead mentoring back in their schooling contexts. Government investment in the program was estimated to be more than A$15 million, with a further A$1 million to the university for the design and delivery of the program. Due to the huge investment of fiscal and human resources, long-term impacts from the program were anticipated. As the program was a system-wide initiative, equitable implementation of mentoring in schools across the sector was also expected.

Three years after the program ceased, the trained mentors were invited to participate in an online survey about the post-program impacts. This paper draws on the 112 responses to the open-ended, short response survey question inquiring about factors impacting on mentoring since the program stopped. Responses were analysed using an iterative approach adapted from Braun and Clarke.

The findings highlighted that although the program was a system-led initiative, there were inequities across the sector in the enactment of mentoring with mentoring approaches dependent on school leadership in school contexts. The disparities in the allocation of time and resources for mentoring across schools added to the inequities. An example here was that while schools were given teaching-release funding by the government, schools could use their discretion as to where the money was spent. Often the participants reported that the money was spent on other priorities than mentoring. While the need for organisational leaders to recognise and prioritise mentoring in educational contexts has been emphasised in previous research, further recommendations to address the inequities of mentoring provisions will be presented.

All authors work in Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI’s) with non-traditional students who have accelerated degree schedules, full-time jobs, are older, have families, take on-line and/or virtual classes, and often are underprepared to navigate curriculum needs or hidden curriculum of the institution, program, and profession. We wondered what a reflective examination of our diverse mentee-mentor experiences could show about improving mentor-mentee relationships within diverse student populations.

Mentoring programs discussed are those in which faculty mentors provide educational, professional, and personal support for students. Relational characteristics of strong mentors for non-traditional students include interpersonal aspects (trust, respect, care, concern, empathy, cultural and individual awareness). While there is much work on characteristics of strong and week mentorship, suggestions on discrete actions or dispositions of mentees are less robust.

We adopted a continuum of care (reciprocal caring) (Noddings, 2012) reframe our mentoring experiences/stories (Russell, 1988). Mentorship narratives supporting socialization in higher education were developed as authors’ personal practical knowledge (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). Individual/joint journaling further developed our adaptation of the continuum of care over time. Analysis was conducted iteratively in bi-weekly meetings. Axial coding helped clarify, further define, and delineate themes.

Emergent themes became moments along the continuum of care and time with repeated exposure between the mentor-mentee dyad. Moments were named responding, engaging, scaffolding, and co-construction, alliterating the shared knowledge transfer available within the moment. Successful interactions and reciprocity by mentee-mentor pairs in each of these moments leads to continued engagement and deepening of relationship. Successful and unsuccessful practices for each moment are discussed.

Non-traditional students are often vulnerable to the unstated invisible curriculum of institutions, including faculty mentorship. It follows that determining and teaching them promising practices of menteeship and expectations for good mentors, can support socialization within higher educational settings. Implications for mentees/mentors working within non-traditional educational settings are described.

This paper introduces the construct of “organisational creativity” (OC) by exploring its applications in decentralised school systems (Keddie, 2015), with a particular focus on the role of teachers and quality teaching. The Italian context is used as an example, providing useful considerations for school systems with similar characteristics and problems.

The argument is rooted in studies of complex organisations (Merchant & Simons, 2019; Perrow, 2019), in conjunction with theories of equity in education (Griffiths, 2003; Hackman, 2005) and school well-being (O'Brien & Murrein, 2015). Special attention is paid to studies on quality teaching (Bowe & Gore, 2017) and the role of teachers as middle leaders (Lipscombe et al., 2023).

In decentralised school systems, school autonomy institutionalises the use of creativity to design unusual forms of organisation (Hashim et al., 2023; Moultrie & Young, 2009; Puccio & Cabra, 2010), with the goal of equity and improving the well-being of all those involved in school life.

The reflection is based on the literature on these topics and on studies on the Italian school system and the use of school autonomy in this context.

OC consists of developing systemic solutions aimed at changing the usual forms of organisation (times, spaces, class formation, forms of relationship between school and family...). Teachers’ commitment is crucial not only in the classroom, but also at the institutional level: quality teaching is expressed in their role as middle leaders, because they can influence local educational policies to improve school well-being for the whole community.

In Italy, school autonomy allows for OC in all schools, but only a few implement courageous and original innovations without repeating customary patterns far removed from students' needs (Landri, 2019).

The paper aims to contribute to the reflection on quality teaching by highlighting the commitment of teachers as middle leaders involved in OC processes.

Mentor teachers are crucial and considerably influential in teacher development (Goldhaber et al., 2020). We examined the inequitable access to quality urban STEM mentoring for novice teachers. Novice teachers often leave within the first five years (OECD, 2019) with STEM teacher retention even more concerning (Whipp & Geronime, 2017). This study examines the impact of a university-based STEM teacher induction program grounded in culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) (Gay, 2002; Ladson-Billings, 1995).

Bandura’s (1977) self-efficacy framework (SEF) informs the “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments” (p. 3). SEF guided our research on teacher beliefs and their influence on instructional practices since “teachers’ beliefs, attitudes, and priorities are linked closely to their classroom behavior and practices” (Rimm-Kaufman and Sawyer, 2004, p. 322) impacting students’ learning outcomes (Guskey & Passaro, 1994). Acquiring deeper knowledge is paramount to understanding the impact of induction and mentoring experiences in shaping aspiring STEM teachers’ efficacy in quality teaching practices.

We qualitatively examined the self-efficacy of urban STEM mentors and mentees after a yearlong induction program including the New Teacher Academy (NTA) Conference. The mentors and mentees who attended the NTA participated in voluntary, semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed and coded to identify salient emergent themes (Saldaña, 2021). Themes included Growth, Relationships, and Challenges.

Mentors and mentees experienced growth through participation in the induction program, improving mentoring strategies, and novice teachers solidifying their STEM teaching craft around CRP. Relationships were vital to providing support and safety to discuss resources, interactions, and navigating the start-of-school. Mentors and mentees experienced challenges, such as time and consistency, which varied by their roles. The program benefited STEM mentors and mentees by improving self-efficacy in their teacher identity and confidence as teachers and mentors. Implications regarding challenges will be discussed.