New Teachers’ Mentoring Expectations and Experiences: A Qualitative Multiple Case Study

The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore how the expectations of new teachers, about their mentoring program and their mentoring experiences can be used to improve the structural design and procedures of mentoring programs to better support new teachers. Socio-historical and sociocultural theories were used to guide the study and purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit five participants who were in the first years of teaching. Based on a rich set of data sources which included a pre-interview and a post- interview, the findings revealed that despite the existence of mentoring programs in the participants’ schools, they still experienced challenges. These challenges were in relation to classroom management, working in an autonomous atmosphere, and overall lack of formal structure. Many of these challenges were expected, and meeting these challenges was needed as best efforts for new teachers to grow and improve. Results suggested a need to improve the structural design and procedures of mentoring programs used to induct new teachers in their placement school. The findings presented practical, policy, and theoretical implications.