Mentoring in basic education

an integrative literature review

Abstract

Current conventional forms of teacher professional development have limited impact on the critical examination and transformation of school practices. Contrary to those who assert the existence of a crisis in schools, it is understood that, in contemporary society, schools increasingly assume the role of managers of general information, as well as builders and reconstructors of socially meaningful knowledge and understanding. Thus, the mentoring process is understood as a strategic lever for teachers and schools to expand their professional learning. In this article, the main objective is to understand how mentoring has been developed and utilized in different educational contexts, with a view to recognizing it as a powerful strategy for teachers’ professional development. To this end, an integrative review of English-language articles indexed in “Web of Science” was conducted. The analysis of the articles revealed that mentoring experiences in basic education are mostly used for initial teacher training or during the first years of a teacher’s career. However, mentoring has also proven effective for the continuing professional development of in-service teachers, although further interpretive studies on these experiences are needed.