Mentoring and coaching preparation and training in professional contexts

Introduction

The main aim of this special issue is to increase knowledge, understanding and awareness of how mentoring and coaching preparation programs can be used to better prepare those working in professional contexts to mentor and coach colleagues more effectively. We will invite contributions that identify specific elements of mentor preparation that lead to enhanced mentoring and coaching practices across a range of professional contexts that include, but are not limited to, schools, higher education, vocational education, early childhood settings, nursing and health.
Mentoring and coaching of colleagues have been found to be effective across a range of professional contexts. For example, mentoring of beginning teachers has been advocated as a key strategy to successfully transition teacher education graduates into the teaching profession (see for example: Crosswell & Beutel, 2012; Shanks et al., 2020; Ulvik et al., 2009). Mentoring has also been found to impact on teacher retention (Kelchtermans, 2019). While mentoring has been found to benefit mentees, there is a body of research that has identified benefits for teacher mentors that include increased self-reflection on practice, learning from the beginning teacher, increased collaboration (Dooley-Kennedy, 2020), improved relationships with teaching colleagues and with students (Ghosh, 2012; Hobson et al., 2009) and opportunities to learn new skills (Olin, 2016) and develop leadership capacity (Thornton, 2014). Researchers such as Hobson et al. (2009) and Ulvik and Smith (2014) have identified that teaching expertise alone is insufficient to become an effective mentor and have further identified that mentors require training and need to be supported in their role so that they have sufficient expertise and knowledge, not just in their profession but also in mentoring. While Hobson, Maxwell, Káplár-Kodácsy and Hotham (2020) have highlighted the importance of mentor training programs for teacher mentors, they suggest that there is “relatively little evidence relating to the nature and impact of such provision” (p. 50). Further, in other professions, such as nursing, effective mentoring education has been found to benefit future nursing professionals, and the general perception of the nursing profession (Tuomikoski, et al., 2019). It is anticipated that this special issue will add to our current understandings of mentor training program elements and contextual features that facilitate or hinder effective mentor preparation across a range of professional contexts as well as identifying how mentors and coaches can be positioned as leaders in their professional contexts.

List of topics:

• coaching
• mentoring
• mentor training
• professional learning
• mentors as leaders
• professional learning
• mentor education 

Submission information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available via the journal's ScholarOne portal.

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title Mentoring and coaching preparation and training in professional contexts at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”. 

Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see the author guidelines on the journal webpage.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key deadlines

Submission opens: 10 April 2023
Submission closes: 31 July 2023